


a kiss on the nose means...

by nishiki



Series: second chances [2]
Category: Assassin's Creed
Genre: Age Difference, AltMal, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, F/M, Fluff, Gen, Kadar is a bitch, Knitting, M/M, Maria x Rauf (mentioned), Parcour and Freerunning, Sergeant Pepper - Freeform, Soldier Malik, fluff without plott (maybe), grumpy!Malik, idiot Altair, just plain stupid, mostly in Malik's head, second chances universe, shameless fluff, shameless!Altair, this story does not have a plot, though not much
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-03-15
Updated: 2016-04-24
Packaged: 2018-05-26 21:30:31
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 8
Words: 30,429
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6256612
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/nishiki/pseuds/nishiki
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A really short, short story.</p><p>When Malik Al-Sayf went to the cinema with his little brother and his freinds Maria and Rauf, he had not expected that he would find himself a stalker right then and there.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> So, I finally started a brandnew little side project now. This fic will take place in the same universe as my fic "Second Chances" and the Altair and Malik from this very fic are the same as Connor meets in Second Chances. Can be read as a stand alone though.

"Hey, there handsome. Can I have your number?"

The day had started as any other normal, quite pleasant day in May, with the sun shining bright in his bedroom and his cat (the Sergeant) loafing on Malik's stomach to hinder him from getting up. Never in his life would Malik Al-Sayf have expected the day to turn so weird later, when he was walking through the neighborhood under a clear blue sky. No cloud was to be seen looming around to tell of an upcoming storm or rain shower to take him by surprise, only an endless ocean of blue up high above their heads, as Malik Al-Sayf, his friends Rauf and Maria, and his little brother Kadar entered the small cinema in their neighborhood. The cinema was considerably smaller than others, with only three auditoriums, but Malik liked this for it reminded him pleasantly on the only cinema they had in his hometown.

Malik did not like the city too much, but when it came to things like cinemas and all those other kinds of places to go, it was quite nice, though he still felt like a total peasant from time to time. His family came from upstate New York and he had grown up knowing only wide stretches of farm land and cows. He liked that, though it had never been easy being one of the two only Muslim families in their community. He was living in New York City for two years now and still he had not gotten used to the noise of the always lively streets and to the boldness of the people living in the city. So, naturally, he almost lost grip of the paper bag filled to the brim with popcorn in his hands, as he was startled by the voice of another man standing right behind him.

He did not quite know what he had expected to see, when he whirled around after he understood that those words were in fact meant for him, maybe he had not expected anything at all - he had not expected being hit on by a guy in a cinema, that was for sure at least - but when he turned around there was only a teenager standing right in front of him, staring at him with bright amber eyes, the white hood of his hoodie covering his apparently brown hair - as indicated by his thin eyebrows. He was tall, but not taller than Malik and surely not even old enough to even think of hitting on another man, let alone a man Malik's age!

Still for just this split second Malik had no fucking clue if he should be affronted or amused by the sole fact that a teenager - a child! - was hitting on him right here at the popcorn stand, with his younger brother and his two best friends witnessing the whole ordeal. Oh, he already heard Kadar suppressing his laughter in pressing his hands so hard to his mouth that he would surely turn blue within the next few seconds, while Maria escaped a small _'Oh my, today's youth!_ ' in her best British accent.

There was another kid standing next to the boy who apparently decided to risk his life in such a brusque fashion, sharing a noticeable resemblance to the first one. He was a bit shorter though and probably a few years younger too. They both wore the same colored hoodies, white, with a red stripe on the hood and they both shared the same scar on the right corners of their mouths which looked suspiciously as if added to their faces on purpose and looking at the boy right in front of him and taking in his appearance, he would not put something as stupid as this past him. His jeans were torn on the knees, his gray sneakers so dirty that Malik could not even tell if they originally had been white once.

"I believe you have mistaken me for someone else, kiddo." Malik snorted when he turned around again to get his order from the man behind the counter (two large bags of popcorn for him, Rauf and Maria, who would share as usual, and one extra-large with an extra-extra-large cup of coke for his brother. He was quite the greedy pig, always behaving as if he would starve to death any minute now).

Right after he disposed of the other bags and got his own from the counter, the nosy child spoke up again. "No, I did mean you. You are pretty fucking hot, you know? Exactly my type. Do you wanna be my boyfriend?" The bag slipped from his fingers as Malik's body decided to descend into a stage of akinesia and spilled its contents over the dark red carpet of the cinema. What the fucking hell!

"Altaїr!" The other boy hissed, but as Malik turned around the boy was dragged away by his apparently younger friend, winking and waving at Malik in a way that could only be described as the local village idiot. Surely the boy's ( _Altaїr's?_ ) friend was a lot more clever than this idiot and had understood the danger of the situation.

"The boy has balls! You have to give him credit for that." Rauf grinned when they slumped into their comfortable seats a few minutes later. "After all, he couldn’t have known that you are gay. It's not like you have it tattooed on your forehead – which we could still change if you'd like."

"He was cute." Maria added helpfully.

"He was hot." Kadar snickered.

"Oh, you shut up alright? He was like _twelve_!" A twelve-year-old with balls of steel apparently, that much was true. Well, no. It was either that he had balls of steel or that he was just incredibly stupid or suicidal. In either case, he was too young for Malik and clearly not at all his type anyway. While his friends and his brother wasted their time until the movie started to nag Malik about the kid that had wanted to get into his pants, Malik tried to ignore them as best he could. It was not always easy for him to make fun about his own sexuality or topics like this one, but it had gotten better in the last few years.

When the lights inside the cinema went off it was like a clearance, for finally the snickering and mocking of his friends ebbed off and the other people around them too fell silent. Malik had only briefly noticed that apparently, not many people wanted to see that very movie and the row behind them was still empty when the movie started. They were here because Kadar had turned twenty-four days ago and now they wanted to celebrate it with going to the movies and maybe some laser-tag and pizza afterward. And since his brother was still so very much a toddler they sat here to experience an animation movie sent to them by the almighty mouse instead of the latest action hero movie two doors down the hall were apparently everyone else was.

Malik did not care much really and he knew that his two best friends did not care either. Malik enjoyed the movie even, well at least until the point he felt something behind him shift and then heard a voice right next to his ear. "Hey there handsome. Can I have your number, please?" The voice was soft, but hoarse and the breath so hot against Malik's ear that it sent shivers down his spine immediately. It was the boy again, as Malik noticed when he whirled around in his seat, much to the surprise of his friends sitting beside him. Maria almost burst out into a fit of laughter, while Rauf choked on his coke and Kadar was simply amazed. There he sat, right behind him in the previous very empty row. His friend was nowhere to be seen anymore, but he had his popcorn and his coke as if it was nobody's business. Malik was a man who had always prided himself on the fact that he had pretty darn good ears and could hear a cat strolling around carpet (which was not very hard with his own cat), but he had not heard this boy on the sticky floor. He had not even heard the creaking sound the seats made when they were lowered so one was able to sit on them. This boy was a ninja apparently.

For just this moment their eyes locked once again, but the boy did not shrink away under Malik's dark gloom, instead his amber eyes glistened with mischief and his stupid grin was, as he threw some popcorn into his mouth, almost ridiculous. Oh, he hoped that kid would fucking choke and die on that piece of popcorn, as he chewed it with a wide open mouth. Apparently he had been raised by apes, though he was sure even apes would have made a better job in raising a kid into a proper adult. He could have said a thousand things, Malik was very well aware of that fact, but he did not. Instead he only pressed his index finger to his lips and produced a very much annoyed "Shhht!", before he simply turned around in his seat again to try and follow the movie.

For a beautiful long moment of quietude and relaxation nothing happened - after his friends finally got a grip on them too again, though he noticed that Kadar seemed very much impressed by that idiot sitting behind him. After ten minutes Malik was sure the boy had left again, but then the first piece of popcorn hit the back of his head. "Oh my god you can't be serious!" Malik hissed, but he refused to turn around again and give the child what he wanted. Oh no. Apparently the kid was like a dog which barked to get the attention of its owners, but oh-fucking-no, Malik was not stupid enough to encourage this behavior any further. This boy lacked discipline, but he did not lack determination as it seemed, because after Malik did not react to this stupid and childish attack, the next pieces of popcorn came flying in his direction. He kept this up for good five minutes and then stopped suddenly.

Again, Malik had hoped that the boy had left, because after this nothing else happened and Malik was ready to forget the whole ordeal and just enjoy the movie to its fullest. His little brother was the next cause of annoyance, as he got up from his seat to go to the toilet and shoved his way past Malik to get out and no wonder so after he had managed to drink his entire extra-extra-large cup of coke within the first half hour of the movie. Surely the idiot would not get back into the room again, for he had left his ticket with Malik as he always did, for he was afraid to lose it otherwise. He never learned his lesson and since he was twenty now, Malik refused to remind him. After Kadar was gone he sank deeper into his seat and just tried to enjoy the rest of the movie - until a weight dropped into the seat right next to him and the next moment the boy's face was right next to his.

There he sat once again! He leaned over the armrest of Kadar's seat, leaning in close to Malik, his chin resting on his right hand and this annoying smile again plastered onto his face. "Why hello there handsome. So alone?"

"Would you just stop this nonsense before I need to call the police?" Malik almost shrieked in terror. What the hell was wrong with this kid? "Go.away.kid."

"Only if you give me your number!" The boy insisted with glistening eyes, clearly amused by the way Malik was behaving.

"How did you even get in here?"

"I bought a ticket!"

"No, you didn’t!" Malik hissed again and felt the persistent need to either strangle that child or punch him.

"Yes, I did! Can I have your number? Pretty please?" Surely the face the boy made should look cute, but to Malik, it was only another annoyance.

"No! Get out!" Oh, he was aware of the fact that the first annoyed parents started to turn their heads to them, but he did not care. He got himself a stalker as it appeared now and he was not ready to give in so easily.

"Oh my god, Malik just give him your number!" Maria chuckled. Her cheeks were puffy and red and she looked as if she had the hardest time keeping her cool. Rauf, on the other hand, was a bit puzzled by this boy's behavior if not a bit impressed too. Balls of steel, ey?

"No!"

"Well, then I give him your number!" He already saw her phone flashing on in the darkness of the room, while another very much annoyed mother two rows in front of them flashed them the angriest look. Oh, how much would he love to just be swallowed by the earth fully! Instead, he needed to face this humiliation in public! He was hit on by a kid and there was nothing he could do about it. No! Instead, his friends encouraged this stupid kid! He could of course not hinder Maria when she wanted to give the kid his number, only protest, as she grabbed the phone of the kid to save Malik's number to it and gave him back the phone with the meanest grin Malik had ever seen on her pretty face. He wanted to fulfill every gay cliché and scratch out her eyes for that!

"Thank you, me lady!" The boy cackled, just when the doors to the room opened again. Malik expected his brother back, instead, the friend of the boy shoved his head into the room, barely lit by the emergency light over the door.

" _Altaїr!"_ The boy hissed in search of his friend and thus _Altaїr_ vanished from Malik's side. Well, no. That was not exactly how it happened, but this was the version Malik liked to tell, while his friends would remind him surely for the rest of his life that Altaїr had given him a kiss on the cheek before he had climbed over the seats again and vanished into thin air like a ghost, so fast and quietly as if he had never been there.

And that was how this story ended. The boy left the cinema and they could go back to enjoying the movie and Malik never saw him again. Except that it did not happen like this. At least he needed to grant Altaїr that he did not call him right away when he and his friends left the cinema and he did not see him afterward either. Almost he would have forgotten about that idiot kid if it would not have been for the phone call he got, when he finally arrived at his flat and just got comfortable in his PJs. It was quite late by now, for Kadar insisted on hanging around a bit longer with his big brother after they dropped of Rauf and Maria at their place.

It was almost midnight when he was finally alone again and though he felt exhausted, he was glad to have spent this day with his little brother, for he saw him too rarely anyway since he was living in New York City. First he thought it was his brother who called and he accepted the call without even sparing the caller's name a second glance, so the next question came as quite the surprise to him. »Hey there honey, so what are you wearing?«

"What the- who's there?" Malik hissed in his phone before he looked at the bloody thing again as if it was cursed. The caller was now shown as unknown. It was only then, that he remembered again that Maria gave the boy his number. He wanted to say he had already forgotten about the kid from the cinema, but of course who would have managed to forget something like that so easily? But at least he had not thought about him much until this point. So, apparently he needed a new phone now - or at least a new number.

»The love of your life.« The voice on the other end sounded quite deep and hoarse and under different circumstances Malik would indeed like a sound like this oh so very much, but since he immediately knew what was going on he could only curse.

"Are you fucking serious? Get off my phone you fucking mental case!" Malik hissed, but before he could end the call there was a deeply annoying wailing-like sound on the other end, sounding a lot like a beaten squirrel.

»Pleaaaaaaaaase don't hang up Malik!« The boy whined and Malik was flabbergasted. Maybe it was due to the beer he already drank, but he paused.

"How do you know my name?"

»The girl saved your number under this name. It’s a cool name, I like it. I think it means king, right? You can be the king of my heart if you like.«

"What do you want?"

»A date!« The boy squawked in excitement. »A date!«

"Yes of course, maybe when you are old enough to drink. Until then, go bother someone your age, you nutcase." And before the boy could do or say anything else he ended the phone call. He should have known that this would not be the end of this whole ordeal, but sometimes Malik was just naïve like this, he guessed.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So I hope I now fixed the Picture Problem in this chapter XD

**_Day 1_ **

Malik rarely underestimated people. Well, that was not entirely true. He actually underestimated a decent amount of people on a regular basis, especially younger people like the novices in basic training he had to deal with from time to time. Sometimes he was reminded of the old truth that one should never judge a book by its cover or underestimate anyone only by judging their looks. The one person he should definitely not have underestimated was the boy named Altaїr. The morning following the day when he met the boy at the cinema, he had almost forgotten about that stupid kid. That was at least until he first checked his phone on that very beautiful early summer morning in May.

His morning had begun beautifully, as his very fat tomcat jumped onto his stomach and woke him up with his loud, deep and very much annoyed meowing like he did every morning. The sun had been shining brightly through his bedroom windows and delivered the promise of a warm and sunny day to be used for adventures and fun since he still had a few days off left. Normally he would have just shoved his stupid cat to the side, rolled onto his stomach and tried to catch a few more hours of sleep, but on this particular morning, something just forced him to stand up – not his cat for sure.

The little black demon he had gotten from his brother a few years ago as a birthday present was brushing against his legs as Malik wandered into the kitchen to give him foot, looking all desperate and hungry as fuck. Sometimes Malik wondered why his brother had chosen this particular cat, but then Malik would look at the little idiot and he would know exactly why. _Sergeant Pepper_ (Pepper for short) was a nasty son of a bitch. He was five years old and Kadar had found him in a shelter four years ago. He said when he looked at the Sergeant he had known he and Malik would get along quite fine. The black cat was missing his left eye and a deep scar deformed his otherwise misleadingly cute face. The other eye was of a bright blue color. He was bigger than most cat's in the neighborhood and yet silent as a shadow and completely invisible in the darkness. That was his advantage as a hunter, Malik guessed. The sergeant was normally in a constant bad mood – especially when he was hungry – and he very much liked to attack random intruders Malik brought to his flat when he was at home. Mostly the Sergeant was roaming the neighborhood scaring other cats and hunting his prey. His meowing was obnoxiously loud and he often liked to start _talking_ and screaming when Malik had just gotten into bed after an especially exhausting day, keeping him awake until Malik would throw him out. He really was no nice cat. But Malik liked him.

Of course, Sergeant Pepper made sure that Malik would almost spill his coffee after he was done eating and jumped on his lap, just as Malik was about to take a sip of his coffee and check his phone. Checking his phone after last night's events turned out to be one of the greatest mistakes he had ever made. He should have just thrown the bloody thing away or even better burned it. It was not very unusual for him to be spammed with freaking _what's app_ messages – mostly by his brother – during the night and that was the sole reason why he always turned his phone into flight mode whenever he was going to bed.

Today though the _spam_ on his phone was of an entirely different quality. The first ten messages were from his brother just as he expected, asking him if he was still awake, writing unnecessary things, trying to get him to answer back. The usual stuff. The rest of the thirty-three messages were from an unknown number.

 

 

And the last message simply said, » _I'm bored_ «. Well, that was something, wasn’t it? This kid was fucking batshit crazy apparently. That was at least what Malik thought on that very morning, when he was still so very naïve about the whole situation and when he did not yet understand what he was dealing with really.

Usually, Malik only rarely used the stools standing around his kitchen in the morning. Usually, he would lean against his breakfast bar and enjoy the first coffee of the day in solitude, with the fat cat purring by his side (sometimes), but today he really was glad that he had decided to sit down first before he had checked his phone now appearing all innocently. Sergeant Pepper was staring at him with his creepy blue eye, looking as if he was either pondering about scratching out Malik's eye to be even, or rather pestering him for a trait, while his face was appearing like he was worrying about his owner's sudden change of behavior and mood. Surely the cat thought about killing Malik in his sleep tonight so the poor man would not need to suffer any longer the life of a two-legged creature – a disadvantage the Sergeant could not understand anyway or how anyone could live like that and be _happy_. Malik, on the other hand, stared at the text messages in awe. For just a second he thought about typing a response – something cruel, so the boy would stop pestering him, but then he put his phone down with the display facing the surface of the breakfast bar and sighed.

What did he do wrong to deserve this?

**_Day 7_ **

Malik was a guy who did not like changes much. He did not like to buy new things only to have something new or to change something only to change it. That was why he had not changed his phone number in at least eight years – in fact, he had still the very same sim-card and the very same phone number from the day he got his first ever cellphone when he was fifteen. His parents had not liked the idea of giving their teenager a phone and they thought he did not need it anyway, but since Malik had turned out to be an exceptional well-behaving and nice child, they thought it might come in handy after Malik had just started his first part time job. Later it had turned out his little brother would use this against them and demanded his own phone when he turned thirteen only a few months later.

So, he had grown quite fond of this phone number. He knew it by heart, he recognized it when it was written somewhere, he liked it. And now he needed to get rid of it. Oh, Malik had bought new phones during the cause of eight years of course! His first phone had worked for at least five years in their beautiful companionship, but then it broke and Malik had been forced to buy a new phone. This was now his third because those modern smartphones simply did not work as long as the old ones. So, he was no stranger to going into a shop that sold phones to get a new one, but he clearly had no idea how it worked to get a new number.

At the end of the day, Malik left the shop not only with a new number but with a new phone as well. One week had passed since that god awful day he had met _Altaїr_ for the first time in the cinema and Malik really had made the mistake believing Altaїr would simply give up after Malik had not reacted to his messages, after those traitorous blue tick marks gave away that he had indeed read the messages. Oh, what naiveté! What a fool he had been!

After Malik had not reacted to Altaїr's first wave of ridiculous brain farts, it had only taken the boy until noon (much to Malik's surprise, after he had stayed up at least until 03:50 in the morning), before he produced yet another flood of messages – which Malik as well ignored. In those messages the boy had not only pestered him about a date again, he also had begun to tell Malik a bit about himself. Now Malik knew already more than he ever wanted to know about that annoying twat. Apparently, the kid was a free runner and doing parkour in his free time – of which he seemed to have much. The boy had not yet told Malik though how old he was, but surely he was still visiting school – how else would he have enough free time at his disposal to do free-running or pester innocent people over their phones? Malik had first been a bit impressed reading that he was doing parkour, but then Altaїr had sent him a selfie with a bloody face, making a pouting grimace, after he had apparently fallen doing his stupid hobby. Surely the kid had made the grant mistake of thinking Malik would find this somewhat cute.

Of course, Malik had not reacted to this, no matter how much he would have liked to write something like _serves you right_ , but since he was the adult in this situation, he would certainly refuse to go down on Altaїr's level of stupidity.

"So a new phone. What was wrong with your old one?" Rauf grinned as he sat down heavily on the chair inside the tattoo parlor he owned. Rauf was his oldest friend and Malik liked to be here. It had been Rauf who made his first tattoo when Malik had just turned twenty-one, almost three years ago. Malik listened to the buzzing of the needles in the background, while one of Rauf's employees was working on a customer. Rauf was an intimidating guy for most people on the streets, even when he was not showing off his various tattoos or piercings. His full dark beard and his thick black hair was most of the times enough to scare away some of the more _anxious_ people and Rauf was naïve enough to not understand that he looked like a terrorist and that this was the reason why the old lady living in his apartment house would not come out of her door when he was on the floor or moving up and down the staircase. Last year he even brought her a self-baked apple pie, because he had been worried for her after he had not seen her for six months – which was normal in bigger complexes, but not in a small one as his, especially not when that other person was living next door. He had ended up putting the pie down in front of her door. He never got his plate back.

Malik had originally wanted to come here to discuss his future tattoo plans with Rauf since the owl on his back seemed to be a bit lonely. But now Malik only scrunched up his face and made a thin line with his lips. "Altaїr was wrong." He groaned. Of course, he had told his friends about the annoying messages he had received during that last week, and while Maria found it hilarious, Rauf seemed to grow more and more worried that his best friend had a stalker now, who could turn out to be a real problem in terms of psychopathic behavior.

"You are aware that you simply could have gotten a new number, right?"

Malik shot him a dark glare and Rauf bit back a grin. He knew him well enough to know how it had happened that Malik had also gotten a new phone. "I loathe those shops." Malik then growled and leaned back in his own chair, letting his head drop back, but Rauf helpfully patted his leg, like the good friend he was.

"Well, let's see about your tattoo then, shall we?" But Malik simply could not concentrate on the sketches Rauf showed him, no matter how excited he was about getting a new tattoo before he needed to leave the country again. After a while in which Malik had just skimmed through the first designs his friend produced, Rauf spoke up again. "You know, Maria told me she remembered that she has already seen Altaїr before. Apparently, he likes to hang around her shop."

Which was a coincidence, clearly, but also quite creepy to Malik, no matter how much sense it made to him, that an athletic guy like this idiot would hang around Maria's sports goods shop. _Athletic my ass_. "Well does he actually buy something at her shop or does he just hang around pestering people?"

"Maria says you are too hard on the kid." Rauf then smirked, but Malik raised his eyebrows at him, after all, it had been Rauf worrying about Malik's apparent stalker problem before, warning him to get too close to this boy in any way, shape or form.

"Well does she? I wonder how she would act if our places were swapped." He murmured before he began massaging his temples in an attempt of getting his slowly building headache under control. Talking about that kid always gave him headaches. Maybe that was due to his sleeping problems and not so much because of the topic discussed. Since all of this started he had hardly slept through the nights, simply because Rauf's paranoia had started to get to him. Sometimes he really had been afraid to wake up to find that kid looming over him with a knife. Ridiculous. "But, well, it's over now, I guess. But say Maria that she will not give my new number away again, okay? I can't afford to buy new phones every week."

Rauf looked like he wanted again to emphasize that he could have just changed his number, but he decided to keep his mouth shut instead.

**_Day 14_ **

The next week passed in blissful silence. No new messages in the middle of the night, no new photos of Altaїr send to him. Just silence and the occasional spam of his little brother, complaining about the bad food he got on campus and how much he missed Malik's or _Mommas_ food. Malik did not react to those complaints, after all, it had been Kadar's decision to live on the campus, he could have moved in with Malik instead (but Kadar liked to state how boring his big brother was already and that he would not have any freedom under Malik's watch – which was not entirely wrong).

How wonderful the world was when Altaїr was not around. Suddenly the green of the trees outside was brighter than ever, suddenly the sun was warmer and Malik had never been as relaxed as now. One week done without any sign of life from Altaїr. Buying that new phone had clearly been the right decision.

"Well, I don’t understand." Maria sighed on the other end of the line while Malik was slowly walking through his flat towards his bedroom, where his laptop still sat on his bed, pressing the new phone to his ear. He wanted to grab the laptop and set it up in his living room so he could skype with Kadar like they did every week if they would not see each other anyway. This was a ritual they started as Kadar moved to the campus, not born out of affection and brotherly love, but because their mother had asked Malik to always keep an eye on Kadar and stay in contact with the boy on a regular basis, for Kadar clearly would not call their parents every week.

"What." Malik sighed, walking into his bedroom. The Sergeant was lying atop of his poor laptop and Malik braced himself for the fight that was about to follow.

"You!" Maria exclaimed. "For months now you are complaining about your single life! You are always whining about how lonely you are and how much you would like to have a boyfriend again to come home to! Not even to mention that your poor libido makes you all moody constantly! Hell, you are even worse PMS-ing than I!"

"So what?" He tried to sneak his fingers between the laptop and the mattress, ignoring her comment on Malik's behavior or his _PMS_ , but the Sergeant hit him with a low dangerous hum.

"So why won't you just give the kid a chance?" Maria tried again with a low huff of air leaving her lips, while Malik heard Rauf humming in the background.

"Because he's obnoxious and a child!" He immediately shot back.

"Yes, so? You too are obnoxious and a child!"

Malik decided the careful approach was the wrong way to deal with this, so he simply grabbed the laptop quickly and pulled it out from under the cat which gained him a few scratches on his left hand. "Bitch…" Malik hissed and Maria produced a high pitch laugh.

"What did you just call me? Shall I come over there and give you a good spanking, honey?"

"No! I was talking to Pepper." Malik moaned. "Listen, Maria, I will find myself a boyfriend someday, but surely not that _brat_. And now, if you would excuse me, I have a skype date with my obnoxious little brother."

"Dawww… give him a big fat kiss from me." Maria snickered before Malik ended the call without further ado. Just after Malik had set down his laptop on his coffee table and opened the thing, he already heard the sound of the incoming call from his brother. _Well_ , he thought. _Here we go again. Let's see if he will also nag me about Altaїr_.

Slowly Malik sat down on his couch and grabbed the cup of coffee he had prepared beforehand; before he clicked on the green accept button and leaned back.

He was not staring in the face of his brother. For a moment Malik did not know _what_ he was seeing. He just stared at the face in front of the other laptop, before it finally made _click_.

"Oh no, you can't be serious!" Malik hissed. "What have you done to my brother?" His first thought was of course that something happened to his brother. After all, he knew nothing about this boy! He could be a serial killer! He could have murdered his brother! This fucking creep! But Altaїr stared at him with big confused eyes.

"I'm here!" A voice chirped from behind Altaїr before the boy moved aside a bit – mainly because Kadar's feet (wearing a beautiful green sock) appeared at Altaїr's shoulder and shoved him to the side. Kadar was lounging comfortably on his bed in the background as if there was not a psychopath in his room that could very well kill him on camera for Malik to see, gut him like a fish and devour his intestines to make Malik understand how angry he was for being ignored. He instinctively grabbed with his free hand for his phone and tried to hold it off camera, ready to call 911.

Instead of murdering his brother and defiling his corpse, Altaїr just grinned sheepishly at him and under different circumstances, Malik might have said he looked a bit flustered and shy - though that would be a blatant lie. "Sup?" His brother then added helpfully from the background while he was clearly not interested in his big brother because he was currently apparently roaming the internet on his phone – checking _Tinder_ or Facebook, for all Malik knew.

"Hello, handsome." Altaїr chimed in leaning closer to the camera again, now that Malik had seen that his brother was still in one piece, but Malik only dragged his left hand over his face and contemplated simply closing the laptop and acting as if that had never happened. If Kadar would die afterward due to Altaїr's disappointment, he would simply deny every connection to it in front of their parents. "So, what are you up to, tonight? I've heard there's a carnival in the city and-"

"Why the hell are you in my brother's room?" Malik hissed at the laptop, though a panicked voice in his mind was already screeching in fear because of this fucking stalker overstepping boundaries after boundaries without even batting a lash. The boy clearly was a nutcase – as was also evident by the thick white hoodie he was wearing, while Malik's AC unit was running full speed to make the heat in his apartment bearable.

"He invited me." Altaїr replied with a small frown on his stupid face.

"I invited him!" His brother blurted from the background before Malik could question Altaїr's statement.

"And why is that?"

"Why did you ignore me?" Altaїr asked instead of giving him a decent answer to his own question, but before Malik could say _why_ he ignored him (not that he would need a good explanation for that), Altaїr continued. "Kadar said you even got a new number! Don’t worry, hun, he already gave it to me. But really, that’s not very nice, you know? You could have just said if you wanted nothing to do with me."

"I did!" Malik almost screeched, like the panicked opera voice inside his mind and then leaned back heavily in his sofa. "I did say that I want nothing to do with you, kid! Leave me the fuck alone! And leave my brother alone!"

"Hey leave me out of this, okay?" His brother chimed in from the background again. "I like him!" Of course, he did. Suddenly Malik knew how all this could have happened. Surely Kadar met Altaїr again, perhaps even in Maria's shop, befriended him, because his idiot brother thought Altaїr was cool and now started to hang around with that stalker. Maybe Kadar even wanted to set Altaїr up with him, so Altaїr could, later on, kill him and leave Kadar as the only heir to their parents.

"Only if you give me a chance! You don’t even know me! Why are you so angry all the time?" Altaїr then replied with a small frown on his youthful face, which might have looked cute – if it would not be Altaїr.

Oh, there were so many good reasons why Malik was so angry. He could count them down for this boy and yet he would probably still not understand. Or he did not want to understand. He did not want to know how or why Kadar got to know Altaїr or why he was in his room now. He did not care! He only wanted to get rid of the boy once and for all.

"I… fine! You know what? Fine! You want a fucking date! You get one! Happy now? But after this you will vanish out of my life again, you hear me? After this date, you will stop harassing me on my phone and you will not talk to my brother ever again!" To Malik it was a miracle how someone would want to date him anyway after a message like this, clearly telling of his detest for the other person, but Altaїr only grinned wider.

"Agreed."


	3. Chapter 3

Blinking lights and loud noises had never been something Malik Al-Sayf was too fond of or even enjoyed at all. His brother Kadar was quite different. He had always loved the arcade machines in their hometown, standing in front of these old-school machines with their flashing lights and their stupid ass sounds for hours. Well, then again Kadar was always quite easy to distract with something as random as this.

As he now stopped in front of the large wooden gate that had been erected at the beginning and the end of the strip on which the carnival had been set up along Canarsie Pier, he shoved his hands into the pockets of his jeans and felt his new phone under the tips of his fingers. Why was he even here now? Honestly! Why did he come here? Why had he agreed on meeting Altaїr? Maybe it was because the boy was oh so very persistent in his advances, but no, because Malik hated nothing more than persistent people always bugging others. This boy never considered how Malik really felt about all of this. He never wasted a second thought about Malik not wanting to meet him!

And yet he was here now and the whole night was still ahead of him, with the sun slowly setting in the distance over the _Jamaica Bay_. Actually, Canarsie Pier was not that far off from his home, so he had not even needed to drive his car or take a taxi to get here. He was living on Foster Avenue in Canarsie and he really liked to walk that extra 38 minutes to get to the pier. He liked the exercise even when he was off duty – especially when he was off duty - and sometimes he would even go for a run at the pier, later then crashing down at either Maria's or Rauf's shops at the Seaview Avenue or Canarsie Road. Still, he missed his home a lot. He missed the quietude of Quarry Road in Comstock and the hiking tours he had gone on the Adirondacks Park with his father from time to time. Brooklyn was always so loud and noisy and he felt so small in this big city, not meaning a thing for the people around him.

"Malik!" Altaїr's loud voice burst his little bubble with a nine-inch long nail. The boy was not far off and just came running towards him, caring one cotton candy in each of his hands, as he left the booth that sold the sweets. Apparently, the boy had come here earlier so he could buy himself and (probably) Malik this unhealthy devious stuff. Again he was wearing this thick hoodie.

"It's 95 degrees out here. Why are you wearing this?" Malik greeted the boy without taking his hands out of his pockets or doing anything at all.

"Well I could get naked if you'd preferred right away, but I think we should rather not scare those poor kids around for life when I'm running around naked with my ding-dong dangling all over the place. Here!" He shoved the one cotton candy (the blue one) at Malik, while Altaїr himself kept the pink one – whatever that said about him, Malik did not really care that much. Reluctantly he took the thing. It was not like he would not like cotton candy that made him hesitate. No. It was the sole fact that he _did_ like it way too much for his own good and for his poor teeth. He had been abstinent for at least ten years now but now he was tempted and he already knew he could not possibly resist. The first piece of cotton candy disappeared into his mouth without him even noticing it. Fuck.

"Thank you, I think I rather pass on the opportunity of seeing you naked." Malik tried to look as dignified as he possibly could while munching on the next bit of cotton candy. Oh, this fuckhead Altaїr! How dare he gave him his kryptonite and then grin on his face as he did now!

"You miss out on something great then!" Altaїr laughed before he unceremoniously grabbed Malik's arm to drag him into the crowd with him. Apparently, the kid was on drugs, because otherwise Malik was not able to justify his childish behavior, as Malik was forced to wander around the carnival with the boy, jumping from one booth to another. He had quite the sweet tooth, though –just as Malik had – and apparently, he had enough money to satisfy his addiction to sugar too. "Be careful that you're not spending all your allowance your parents gave you on sweets." Malik remarked at one point, as Altaїr shoved something to eat at him yet again. They had not spoken all that much since they met up – which was already half an hour ago at this point because Altaїr had mostly busied himself eating or shoving something to eat at Malik, as if that was the way of making sure to woo someone. Clearly, the boy had no experience whatsoever in this field. Well, maybe he just tried to make Malik sleepy with all the food so he would have an easier time to attack him later.

Altaїr was clearly no match for a man like Malik judging by his appearance. He seemed quite slender, though it was hard to say with the boy wearing the thick hoodie like a shield against curious looks, but Malik was at least positive that the boy would not be able to compete with him as it came to raw strength. "Your brother says you’re a soldier." Altaїr then stated muffled with a full mouth due to the chocolate fruits he had just shoved in his face.

The statement was so random to Malik that he blinked at the boy for a moment before he walked on then and finally dragged Altaїr away from the booth that had sold him the chocolate fruit. Apparently, he needed to protect this kid from himself. "I'm a sniper, yes." Malik then replied with a scoff.

"Cool!" Altaїr almost instantly rewarded him with the reply he had expected. _Cool_ , yes that was what most people said, without acknowledging the fact that he needed to shoot people. Apparently, that did not matter for most people as long as those who fell prey to Malik were the _bad ones_. Whatever that meant. "So are you stationed here now or are you just off duty for now?"

Was that a real conversation the boy finally tried to implicate him in? "I'm stationed in Syria actually. I'm staying here until mid-July and then I'm going back for another six months." Before he would hopefully come back in one piece again. For a moment he did not know why he answered him right away, but then he thought why should he not?

"My father was from Syria." His date murmured, already chewing on another thing to eat, while they slowly walked through the crowd. He had expected Altaїr to run straight for the roller coaster or the fun house, but the boy seemed perfectly contempt of walking beside him instead. Malik though hated to be in that crowd. Maybe this was a war thing. Maybe his unnatural fear of crowded places just came with the time he had spent abroad seeing people being blown up or people blowing themselves up. "He fled with my mother before I was born. My mother is British though."

"Why did they come to the US then?" Malik replied after a moment of him watching the other people perfectly minding their own business and having a jolly good time out here.

"They didn’t. Went to Britain first to my mother's family. We lived there until my father died. I was about four when he died, then my mother decided to move to the US because of her work." _Oh no, Malik. Do not get involved in this!_ His brain suddenly shouted at him. A dead father. Fuck no. He did not want to hear any more of this! This could only turn bad very quickly! He did not want to hear a sob story for fuck's sake! He would grow to like that kid if he would present him with a sob story! Malik was quite susceptible to stuff like this! No!

"I'm sorry to hear that." He replied instead of not getting involved. _Oh, fuck me, Malik!_ His brain cried. _Do not come back to me crying when everything has turned to shit now!_ His brain apparently decided to be a bitch about this situation.

"It's alright. Hardly remember him now anyway." Altaїr replied with a smirk, but the look in his eyes told Malik that this was a blatant lie. Oh fuck. But before he could say anything else the boy grinned at him again and gestured towards the fun house instead. "Let's go!"

"No, kid." Malik finally regained control and stopped as Altaїr wanted to pull him along towards the fun house. Confused the younger male stopped and glanced at him. "I'm not particularly fond of those things. I think we should end this now, alright?"

"You promised me a date." Altaїr replied with a frown, but Malik shook off his hand and started walking again.

"Yes, and you got one. Now go home, kid." It was not easy to behave like this for him. His parents had raised him to be good and nice to people and not to treat other like crap as he did now. He had no reason to behave like this too, even though his brother liked to emphasize that Malik was always behaving like a moody bitch. But how was he supposed to get it to Altaїr's head otherwise?

"What's your fucking problem man?" Altaїr growled as he followed him and apparently did not care for the people already glancing at them in confusion about the ruckus they seemed to make.

"Your age, for a start!" Malik then hissed back but kept on walking anyway, for he already knew Altaїr would follow him nonetheless. He was not the type of guy who would give up so easily and under different circumstances, Malik would have liked this trait greatly. He had always loved the more stubborn type of guys. Altaїr was not bad looking either if he would be honest with himself – he was just too young and until now Malik had hardly even seen him without a hood covering his head.

"I'm eighteen!" Altaїr shot with a deep growl and though that did surprise Malik a bit, it did not change a thing. There were still five years lying between them! "Don’t treat me like a fucking child!"

"But you are!" Malik then yelled and barely even noticed that they had reached the end of the carnival and entered the promenade by the pier now. There were still people passing by, but of course not as much as at the fair behind them. The light was now dimmer for the only light sources were the street lamps along the promenade. "You are still too young!"

"You're twenty-three!" Altaїr replied angrily – and Malik would not ask him how he knew that because of course his brother had told Altaїr. "Don’t act like you were already thirty! It's only five years that I'm younger!"

"Five years are more than enough when one of us is only eighteen and hardly allowed to drink alcohol!"

"Why is that so important to you? You are Muslim and not allowed to drink anyway!" Altaїr hissed. Well, points to him of course, but that was not the point! Well, what was the point really?

"What do you even want from me, Altaїr?" Malik then sighed as he stopped and glanced at the ocean, glistening in the light of a full moon.

"A chance!" Altaїr hissed. "You are so wrapped up in your prejudice about me that you did not even want to get to know me! Maybe you would like me if you would try to get to know me at least!"

"I have no interest in getting to know you, Altaїr. There is no way that we could come together." He really tried to be as calm as possible about this whole situation, although it was far from being easy.

"We could be friends, though." Altaїr muffled behind him. "I mean, maybe I will not like you enough to be your boyfriend as I get to know you, sorry mate. But we could still be friends."

Malik could not help but laugh at this. It was unbelievable to him how a person could be so stubborn about something and so elegantly turn the situation around like this at the same time! The boy had a point, though. This was not a fairy tale. They did not meet up on a date, fall in love immediately and live happily ever after. They needed to get to know one another anyway first, right? Fuck.

"Okay then." Malik sighed being the adult in this situation – clearly. "Come on then. I'm a lame twenty-three-year-old and I don’t like fairs, so go on a walk with me and get to know me."

He turned around so Altaїr could grin in victory and maybe jump in excitement without Malik seeing it before the boy closed the distance between them again and suddenly produced a package of Haribo out of his jeans pocket which he offered to Malik. What the hell was wrong with this kid, really? Malik still took the offer and shoved a hand full gummy bears into his mouth.

"I do know most things about you anyway already. Kadar told me everything I need to know." Altaїr grinned and Malik did not even question the truth behind his words. Still, no matter how obnoxious he was, it was still a bit charming and flattering to Malik.

"Okay, then I'll ask you a question instead." He sighed. "How comes you have gummy bears with you?"

"Sugar calms me down." Altaїr grinned a bit flustered, though it was quite hard to tell in the dim light. Somehow Malik though that this was a lie for he did not seem very calm before.

"So you are nervous right now." Malik concluded. "Is this the first time you do something like this?"

"What do you mean? Pestering somebody who is _sooooooo muuuuuuch oooooooolder_ into going on a date with me?" Altaїr snickered and shoved a few more gummy bears into his mouth. It was only then that Malik noticed how rough his hands seemed and every little scratch on his fingers and the backs of his hands. Apparently, he was not wearing protection when he would go on his stupid little parkour runs.

"Yes." Malik replied, grabbing a few more gummy bears too without asking for permission. Altaїr did not seem to mind anyway.

"Well, yes. Usually the guys I asked on a date was quite easy to convince. That’s why I'm single. Too easy. I like challenges more. I'd rather fight for something or someone who is worth my time and effort. I don’t like dating someone only to be lead down a few weeks later again." As he looked at Malik now, the older of the two was clearly taken by surprise by the spark in those amber eyes. Oh no. Fuck no. Now that Altaїr was not playing the lovely, likable idiot any longer as it seemed, Malik's brains were reacting quite differently to the _boy_.

"So why are you wearing this thing? You haven’t answered my question before." Malik reminded him while clearing his throat a bit, gesturing to his hood.

"I'm cold." Altaїr replied simply and shrugged his shoulders.

"Again, it's like 95 degrees out here still."

"Yes and I'm cold. I'm always cold." Altaїr huffed with another hand full of gummi bears disappearing in his mouth. Malik came to really like the clear and crisp sound of his voice and the curve of his upper lip, within the last few minutes.

"So you have always cold feet too?"

"Yes."

"I don’t like men with cold feet in my bed."

Maybe it was the time Malik had spent without having someone in his bed. Maybe it was his self-imposed abstinence that made all of this so much more intense. Maybe it was his secret longing for another human being that had led to all of this in the first place. He could not explain the situation he found himself in any other way than this. But Altaїr tasted so fucking good, he had not been able to resist. He could still taste the sweets the boy had devoured prior to this on his tongue while he was dragging his large hands over Altaїr's sides.

He had been right. The boy was quite slender, but not unmuscular. He clearly got something out of his free running and parkour training. His muscles were well defined but did not change his silhouette in the slightest. No matter what Altaїr said, though, to Malik it was clear that he was a bit more inexperienced than he was. He could tell by the way he was writhing underneath him, clenching the bed sheets with his slim fingers, as his whole body convulsed and contracted around Malik, as soon as the boy reached his climax – his third, as Malik would later remind him on as often as he would find opportunity too.

As Malik woke up the next morning with the body still next to him, he did not even want to think of a good explanation of how he had ended up like this with Altaїr in his bed – naked, one might add. It just _happened_. Yes. That was exactly what happened. It just _happened_. He had never been able to quite understand what people meant when they said that it just happened that they had slept with someone as if their brains had not been involved in the entire process. Oh, Malik's brain had very much been involved last night and still, it had just happened. He was not even that sure that he remembered the entire way home now that he slowly sat up with a low groan. He felt his muscles ache as if he had worked out for hours. Well, he guessed in some way or another he had worked out for hours…

Altaїr was still fast asleep in the bed next to him, looking like dead with the blanket hanging loosely over his narrow hips. He really had been quite surprised how okay the boy was with running around naked. Well, he did not quite know what he had expected, but certainly not _that_ level of shamelessness. Altaїr had shed his clothes not in Malik's flat, but already in the hallway – and oh that boy was a bad influence.

Malik had always thought to be quite immune to bad influences of any sorts. Maria was such a person and Rauf had always fallen prey to her stupid ideas or tendencies, always bringing the poor guy to do stuff he would normally not do. But this Altaїr-guy… Wow. He had not thought he would ever run around naked outside his apartment – not that he would have ever run around naked _inside_ his apartment, for he always figured that the naked form of a man was a sight best looked upon _not running_. Yet he did. And now he hoped that none of his neighbors had seen it. He liked his flat, he didn’t want to move.

Surprisingly he did not even regret it – Well, neither of it, not the running around naked in the hallway and certainly not having banged Altaїr. At least not now. For now, he just sat in his bed and looked out of his window, amazed by the fact that another human being could force him to be that spontaneous still. He still did not quite know what it was about Altaїr that had made him do all of this, certainly not his nonexistent charm. Altaїr was the least charming guy he had ever met for sure and yet Malik had felt quite relaxed in his presence after they got the first little argument out of the way last night.

He remembered still how Altaїr and he had walked down the promenade, just talking about nothing in particular. It had turned out Altaїr really did know quite a lot already about Malik through his brother. Surely he had asked question after question until his poor little brother had just spilled out everything he knew about his older brother, starting from his favorite color to the size of his shoes – which Altaїr mocked him for, demanding that he was allowed to try on Malik's clown shoes. He was a funny guy, that much Malik was ready to admit. He could understand why his brother got to be friends with Altaїr so quickly. Somehow everything seemed a bit lighter and a bit easier around this guy. In Altaїr's presence, there was no bad mood, nothing to really worry about. He was able to lighten up every situation so fast one would feel dizzy by the sudden change.

Weird.

He really was weird.

And yet, though they had talked for hours just wandering around up and down the promenade, avoiding crowded areas to not be disturbed by anything, he had barely learned anything more serious about Altaїr. They had started kissing at one point and Malik could not even remember how, when or why exactly, but they simply did and after they received their fair share of stares, they had decided Malik should show Altaїr his flat. Well, that had escalated really quickly and Malik suddenly felt like the biggest fool on earth. He had gone on this date with the goal of deleting Altaїr out of his life once and for all, to make the kid understand, that he was not going to give into his advances and now said kid was lying naked in his bed. Maybe there had been something in the gummy bears.

Hell, what a mess had he gotten himself into now?

He had thought he was now at an age when he would not do something like this anymore. Well, he had not exactly been shallow before and jumped right into bed with every man he found attractive, but he had been quite … well, fun loving, one might say, but since he got the position he now had in the army, he somewhat toned down all that a bit. Most of his little adventures he had regretted anyway afterward because that simply was not what he wanted. He would not turn down good sex of course, but he never was a man only thinking about his fun. He had always wanted a serious relationship, but not one of his relationships up until now had really worked out. Maybe it was his age. He was too young to be one of those mature older guys and felt too old and mature to hang around or date those younger than him or those his age. Most men in their twenties had only their fun in mind and not many of them were faithful to their partner. Malik had learned that the hard way in his last relationship and for most of the other guys he had dated he was too serious. It was a mess. And now he was here with Altaїr who was five years younger and somehow he did not regret it though he knew less about this dude than he had known about every other guy he had fucked. Malik had always taken care of getting to know the other person first quite well, often dated for over two months until the other person could not wait any longer, but then those relationships had not worked out, often broke apart quite quickly afterward. Maybe it was good that he had slept with Altaїr right away, getting the tension out of the way that might build up, but he did not expect Altaїr to stay anyway. Surely the boy would sneak out of his flat as soon as Malik would take a shower and then never try to contact him ever again.

Well, at least he had had fun, right? No hard feelings there, he guessed. It was not like he had fallen in love with Altaїr. He came to like him last night, yes, more so than he would have thought before, but he could indeed confirm that Altaїr was a genuinely nice person, a funny guy and easy to be around. Maybe they would hook up again if Altaїr would decide to stay close - which he doubted. It was a shame really. He could use a friend like him, to be honest. Of course, he could talk to Rauf and Maria about everything - even to Kadar - but there were certain things they would simply not understand. He had never had another friend who was gay. Well, that was not true. He had had one during high school, then Maria had tried to set him up with the guy, they had started dating and then Malik had experienced not only the nastiest breakup in his entire life now but also an unwanted outing in front of his school _and_ his parents.

"You are thinking too hard…" A sleepy voice sounded next to him before he heard the rustling of the sheets again and noticed how Altaїr curled up in his blankets like a caterpillar. "You get wrinkles when you are thinking so hard. I can hear you thinking and it gives me headaches … stop it." Altaїr had not even bothered to open his eyes, but Malik was amazed that the boy was so calm all of the sudden - without sugar. The times Malik had seen him the boy had seemed a bit hyper, but maybe he had just been nervous and now there was no reason to be nervous anymore. He looked totally satisfied right now in his blanket cocoon, still drowsy and not at all as if he was going to flee the scene. "My feet are cold."

Malik couldn’t help but chuckle. "It's like 90 Degrees already." He informed the boy grinning. Sergeant Pepper, however, shoved his head into the room and meowed accusingly.

 


	4. Chapter 4

When Altair came _home_ for the first time with a split lip, Malik had just lifted his left brow in surprise, but had not really asked him how he got that injury, for he had thought Altaїr had fallen doing free running again and Altaїr had not mentioned anything out of the ordinary and had been his usual quite hyped up self. The next time Altaїr came home with a bruise on his jaw he had been a bit more concerned, but still, Altaїr had been his usual self, had laughed the injury off and played with the Sergeant until the bloody cat had left the flat freely out of annoyance with this strange human that lately intruded his realm. Altaїr was one of the rare exceptions Pepper would let roam around the flat freely and not attack Altaїr - as long as Altaїr was not running around barefooted again.

They were dating for three weeks now already and Malik had still a few weeks left until he would need to go back to Syria. It was quite funny how all of that happened so fast, really. He had not expected this to become something more … well, _serious_ , though serious did not seem to be the right word for this – whatever _this_ was. Since their first date they had met almost every day and if they would not go out to do something together (even if it was just having a milkshake at a local fast food restaurant), Altaїr would at least drop by quickly to just say hi, either when Malik was at Rauf's shop or at home. It was quite weird, but Altair was pretty much like a cat, Malik thought. He needed his freedom, he needed to run around on his own terms and drop by whenever he pleased to do so and somehow Malik was cool with this. Malik, the very same Malik Al-Sayf who always needed to be in control over his surroundings, who was really not the most spontaneous guy in the world and who hated nothing more than being not able to predict what was going to happen.

Altaїr had quickly become a part of his life and Malik would even bring him when he was meeting up with Rauf and Maria in their favorite diner for Pizza and drinks. He even got along quite well with them! One week after they had started dating it turned out that Altaїr was currently waiting to start with Uni next autumn to study Psychology. It had turned out Altaїr was not at all an idiot. It had turned out Altaїr had finished High-School earlier than other kids. It had turned out Altaїr was a freaking genius and that he was working part time since he was sixteen after he had left school. It had also turned out he had skipped a few grades. And yet no matter how amazed Malik had been as he had first seen Altaїr wearing reading glasses and shoving his nose into a textbook for psychology students of the higher grades already, this was the most he knew about his personal life after three weeks.

A part of him felt a bit left out because of it after Altaїr knew so much about him already. Then he felt stupid for discovering how smart that idiot was in reality and wondered if Altaїr was maybe only playing with him. This was what was going on inside Malik's head this very night as he was lying wide awake in his suddenly way too big bed with Pepper by his side. Suddenly he felt like a teenager all over again, wondering if the person he was fond of was liking him back the same way as he did, though there was no _the same way_ yet and Malik was still a bit cautious to not grow too attached to Altaїr too fast. He had no interest in getting fucked over again and Altaїr seemed to be a likely candidate to do exactly that. It felt weird admitting this to himself, but then again he was just a normal guy with normal emotions too - and with a mother nagging him about his new boyfriend.

Apparently, Kadar had told her a few days ago doing his forced Sunday call with _momma_ to change the topic from his studies to Malik's sex life, for that always got their mother's blood boiling apparently. Of course, she had called him afterward and asked him about this. To Malik, it was still odd talking with his mother about this. He still did not know how she felt about him being gay. He knew how his father felt about it. He had not spoken to the old man since he had left the house to join the forces. They had been close when Malik was growing up, though Kadar had always secretly been his father's favorite, while Malik was his mother's and yet his dad and he had been close to a different level than him and Kadar or Malik and his mother. That had stopped after his unwanted outing. His father had not disowned him. He was a Muslim, yes, he lived by the Quo'ran, yes, but he would not disown his own son because he was gay. To his parents, it came as a shock and though they had claimed that this revelation would change nothing between them as a family, it had. He had been seventeen then and not long after this, after he had finished high school and became eighteen, he had left his home because nothing had been like before anymore.

A knock on his door ripped him right out of those memories and he was a bit thankful for this distraction even. He did not like to dwell on those memories. If he had known what was waiting for him on the other side of that door, maybe he had rather dwelt on those memories instead, no matter how hard they were to handle.

The moment he opened the door to the hallway, he was reminded of why he had been so skeptical about Altaїr in the first place. He did not like drama or trouble and he had known from the start that a guy like Altaїr meant trouble. His whole being screamed _troublemaker_ at anyone who passed him by in the streets and yet he had been unable to protect himself from this. As he now opened the door, ignoring how late at night it already was or the storm raging in the background over Brooklyn, he was confronted with Altaїr standing in front of the door. It was raining outside, the first time for weeks now thankfully, and Altaїr was soaking wet. That was of course not the worst part about this situation. Malik did normally not care if his boyfriend was soaking wet. What he did care for was that said boyfriend arrived quite deranged, with blood running from his nose, his beloved white hoodie torn at some spots, his dark jeans ripped at his knees and dark blotches of blood ruining the fabric.

"Can I stay? I'm cold."

For a moment Malik was tempted to say no. For a moment he wanted to shoo the boy away because he did not want to deal with this right now, after the last three weeks had been so _nice_. Yes, it had been nice having a boyfriend again, having someone to spend time with except for his friends, someone to kiss or to loaf around with – or to fuck of course. All that might be coming to a halt now, a part of him suddenly feared and yet he took Altaїr in, grabbed him by the shoulder and pulled him into his flat before he closed the door and listened to the thunderstorm outside for a second. "What happened? Did you fall again?" He sighed but dragged Altaїr with him towards the bathroom. The air was humid and uncomfortably warm, but perhaps the thunderstorm would shake up the air enough to make the heat more bearable again in the next days.

"Yes." Altaїr answered when they entered the bathroom. He looked awful in the neon light. He looked pale and bruised and not at all like he had just fallen.

"Altaїr even you are not stupid enough to go free running during a thunderstorm." Malik moaned as he sat down the stupid boy on the rim of the bathtub. "Tell the truth. What happened?"

"My stepdad happened." Altaїr answered after a moment with a low murmur and Malik shortly glanced at him, before he threw a towel at the boy. He knew he was entering dangerous territory and yet he could not just turn his back to this boy only because of the possibility of drama involved in this boy and maybe a possible relationship between them.

"So you have a stepdad." Malik concluded quietly before he sat down opposite of Altaїr on his clothes hamper and began toweling his wet hair dry just a bit. "Take this off." He then sighed gesturing towards Altaїr's wet clothes. "And take a shower, I'll take care of your wounds afterward." With that, he left Altaїr in the bathroom for the moment being and went into his bedroom to grab a few of his clothes so Altaїr had something warm to put on afterward. The boy had not lied to him on their first date. He really was always cold and his feet alone were like ice blocks for the most part, which was why Altaїr was forbidden to join Malik in bed without socks.

And yet Malik found himself pausing after he grabbed a few clothes for Altaїr and listened to the shower in the background. They were dating for three weeks now, a weird first meeting in a cinema had lead to this stormy affair and now Malik found himself pausing for the first time in those three weeks. He could not say he had been unhappy any second of the last three weeks, which was odd considering that being grumpy was so engraved in his persona that most people would not even expect him to be different. But during those three weeks his closest friends had often remarked how happy and relaxed he seemed, and though Maria had liked to remark that this was because he finally had had sex again, Malik knew it was not the sex that had caused this change. This was no love either, though he liked that stupid kid. But, well, he had simply not wasted his time overthinking during this time. He had not thought about everything that could go wrong and on the same instant had not even been bothered that he knew so little about the boy he let inside his home on a regular basis. Maybe it was better not always overthinking everything and not to know everything about another person right from the start, but now his brain finally began to fall back in its normal patterns and he found himself wondering what secrets this boy might have.

"Malik?" Altaїr's voice sounded from the bathroom door and as Malik blinked again Altaїr stood in the open door with a towel wrapped around his hips. He did not look well. He had bruises all over his body and though that was nothing new to Malik, finally he began to grasp that those bruises surely were not only from Altaїr's little accidents doing parkour. "You're thinking too hard again." Altaїr grinned before he snatched the clothes from Malik's fingers so he could dress himself after the shower. To Malik, it still was a miracle how the boy could be cold during weather such as this. Malik was sweating profusely due to the humid air and the wind blowing through his wide open windows only did so little to help him with the heat.

Having Altaїr standing so close in front of him now, Malik's clothes in his hands with the thunder still roaring in the background felt weird and as Altaїr was trying to steal a kiss from Malik as an introduction of something not so innocent at all, Malik found himself moving back a bit. "So tell me about your stepdad then." He sighed, as he moved back to his bed and sat down heavily on the mattress. Altaїr seemed a bit caught off guard all of the sudden, but it was almost impossible to tell if it was because of the question or because Malik had flinched back from his touch. Yet Altaїr followed him to the bed, toweling his hair dry a bit in the dim light of Malik's bedroom.

"There is nothing to tell you about him." Altaїr simply replied after a moment, even though he did not sound like the Altaїr Malik was used to by now. He sounded a lot more defensive all of the sudden. "He is an asshole, that’s it, end of story."

"So you got those bruises from him too?" Malik asked and carefully touched for one of the larger bruises on his left side. This time it was Altaїr who flinched just a bit before he made a face and obviously tried not to show how much it had hurt.

"Not all of them." He replied with a faint smirk and leaned over to Malik to gently bit his jaw, but the older one of them pinched his cheek in revenge.

"So your stepdad is an asshole that likes to punch his stepson?" Malik concluded and tried to sound as calm as he possibly could about all this, even though he already felt the sting of anger rising in his stomach, but Altaїr laughed and let himself fall back onto the mattress, disregarding the fresh clothes to the side.

"I guess you could put it this way." He chuckled and simply threw away the moist towel to the ground only to crawl under the blanket. All of this seemed so normal to them already, that Malik hardly batted a lash about this kind of behavior. "We never got along, but my mother is always on his side, especially since they know that I'm hella gay. They married two years ago, haven’t even asked me if I'm cool with it. Normally I try to avoid him and I'm barely home anyways. I sleep at friends' places most of the times. Apparently, he had a bad day and needed to let his anger out on someone. Well, at least he doesn’t punch my mom, I guess. To her he is nice. I think he really loves her, but me he absolutely hated from the start."

Malik did not want to lie down beside Altaїr to snuggle or fall asleep. He really didn’t. He wanted to be mad, to shoo the boy away and into the rain again, if not for withholding this kind of information from him, then for the moist towel now lying on his floor. But Malik slowly crawled into his bed himself but refused to crawl under the blanket. It was way too hot for that anyway.

"Do your parents know?" Altaїr enquired after a moment of silence between them. Of course, Malik wanted to go to this stepfather of Altaїr's to punch in his teeth for beating up his stepson like this, but then again he doubted that Altaїr was a damsel in distress and he himself was most certainly no knight in shining armor either. Altaїr could handle himself, he knew that.

"That I'm hella gay?" Malik repeated dryly. "Yes, of course, they know. Can't say they were too happy about it. My mom threw the Qur'an at me, but we are getting along still pretty good." His mother, fortunately, had a pretty bad aim on that faithful day, otherwise, Malik would have been knocked out by the book surely.

"And your dad?"

"It's not the same as it was before." Malik sighed but then chuckled. "But I guess that’s only because of the way I came out to them. I didn’t plan to do so, actually, not when I did at least. I mean, I wanted to tell them at some point of course, but I was still in High School – well, I was about to graduate actually and I was dating one of my best friends at the time, but I caught him banging another guy from our school and broke up with him. Didn’t bode with him well, so he made a scene in front of our school – of course at the one day my father decided to pick me up to have lunch with me."

"Sounds terrible." Altaїr huffed.

"Yes, it was." Malik then laughed. "It was a disaster! My father did not say a word until we got home in his car – no lunch for me on that day. When we pulled into the driveway he turned to me and said 'son, I believe you have to tell me something', with this stern voice only a very disappointed father could make – You know, like in the movies. I left home shortly after that after I graduated and was accepted into the forces. We were never as close as him and Kadar, but we were getting along quite well before that. Now I hardly see him or speak to him. I visit my parents for the holidays mostly, but it's always awkward. My brother, on the other hand, is totally cool with it and my mom sometimes even asks about my love live and if I have a boyfriend by now."

"So did you tell her about meeee?" Altaїr grinned sheepishly snuggling closer and making the heat even more unbearable for Malik.

"No" Malik grinned. "Maybe if you proof to be worthy. You see my mother is always careful about who she allows to date her sons. She is a lioness and you she would have for breakfast."

Altaїr smirked. "My mother is a duck then at best." Malik really wanted to comfort Altaїr, but then he didn’t. He did not know where to go to from here on now with this boy. He did not want to exchange stories about their parents and lives and yet they were already in the middle of this.

"So who is this Abbas-guy you’ve been talking about in your videos?" He had discovered Altaїr's YouTube channel a little while ago and since then he found himself watching his videos on a regular basis, even though Altaїr only uploaded every now and then something when he was practicing with his pals. Altaїr grinned sheepishly.

"So you’ve been watching my stuff, yes?"

Malik scoffed but kicked Altaїr's leg a bit. "So? Who is he?"

"Are you jealous?"

"No? Who is he?"

"You are jealous."

"Do I need to punch you or him?"

"He is my rival."

"You did not just say rival." Malik huffed, crossing his arms behind his head and stared at the ceiling.

"I did because he is. He is a free runner also. I met him when I started and first we got along quite well, but he is a prick, always trying to get as good as me, always angry that he is not."

"Oh, how good it is that you are not at all self-consumed, right?" Malik huffed as Altaїr kicked his shin, after turning to his side so he could face Malik better. The Sergeant was lying at the end of the bed and by his looks alone Malik could tell that he was contemplating attacking Altaїr's feet under the blanket.

"But it’s the truth! He always tries to challenge me, but he then can't hold up with me. He left our group a few weeks ago, but he still shows up at our training grounds and often tries to force me into competitions. He's a pain in the ass and he knows nothing about free running or parkour, always brings himself or his friends in dangerous situations, never checks out the ground and stuff." He sighed closing his eyes drowsily. It was weird how accustomed they got to each other, feeling as if they were dating for years already. Oh, this was not good.

"You know that we can't keep it up like this, right? I mean… You know that we can't keep dating right?" Malik finally murmured and stared at the ceiling again. Somehow it did not feel right to him to say something like this, but it needed to be said. He felt much too comfortable around that stupid kid.

"Why?" Altaїr asked, but he appeared quite calm as if Malik did not have just told him that he was somewhat breaking up with him or already damning their blossoming relationship. "I mean, I know that you're quite the coward, but I do not quite understand why this means our relationship cannot work out."

Unbelievable. "I'm a coward? I'm a soldier."

Altaїr laughed and grabbed for the thin chain around Malik's neck only to play with his dog tags as he always did when they would just lie around uselessly. Malik did not even know why he was wearing this at home anyway. It was just … he was so used to it. "I know and yet you are a coward. You are afraid of getting hurt, I know how that feels."

"Altaїr." Malik sat up again and this time he did face him only to stare at him in all the seriousness he could muster, even though Altaїr seemed rather uncaring for that and only lifted one eyebrow quite sluggishly. "I need to go back to duty soon and I am not going to come back home for months, maybe even longer, if I am going to come back at all."

"So what? I wait then."

"No, you don’t. You are eighteen. You think you are going to wait for me like we're in some cliché movie and that everything is going to work out when I am back, but this is not how things are going to be and you need to understand this. You'll start your studies soon; you will not have much time during your college years. The field you decided on going into is demanding and you will not have time to worry about me or our relationship and when I'm coming back you will already have forgotten about me."

"Well, I find it quite annoying that you are thinking to know what I will do. Even I don’t know what I'm going to do next most times. But even if you're right, that doesn’t matter now, or is it? Now you're here and I'm here. We have time at our hands which we could spend together. You could just wipe away this frown from your face and then we could have a jolly good time until you are off to Syria again. Even if it doesn’t work out, we would still have the memory then, right?"

 _I don’t want to_ , Malik thought. He knew that he would grow too attached to Altaїr if he would allow this to continue and if he was growing too attached, the time he would spend in Syria would only be worse than it already was every time he was there. This would lead to mistakes on his part and then he would come home and got his heart broken all over again because Altaїr had moved on without him. He couldn’t even blame him! The boy was a child! He was eighteen! He didn’t know better yet. He was spontaneous and was living day by day, but this didn’t work for Malik! He liked to plan ahead, he liked stable things. This right here was the most unstable and most unpredictable thing he had ever done. "It won't work." He concluded stubbornly as he lied down again. He would not shoo Altaїr out of his flat now of course. "I think it would be best if we would not see each other again."


	5. Chapter 5

Altaїr would get over it. He was sure of it. They had been dating for three weeks only and a boy his age would get over such affairs quite quickly. It was not like they had been dating for years and years, being lovers for real. They were not lovers. They had not _loved_ each other. _Liking_ , yes, that Malik could agree on. He had liked that boy, had grown fond of him, but love was too strong a word for such a short time in his life.

He had not seen Altaїr after that stormy, rainy night again. He had been gone after Malik came back from his early jogging round and though a part of him had been disappointed, he was sure that it was for the better and yet he had caught himself hoping for Altaїr just standing in front of his door with fresh bread shortly after or with a bag full of snacks in the evening. But no. No sign of life and after the first day had passed Malik had been sure that he was going back to his normal life without Altaїr. He had been sure he would go back to his normal day to day routines, working out, hanging out with his friends, spending lonely evenings in front of the telly with Pepper by his side. Altaїr had shown up the next day with a bag of sweets and a black eye, but Malik had not opened the door for him after he had glanced through the peephole in his door. He had played dead and he didn’t even know why. It was childish and it was cruel.

"You're an enigma to me." Rauf sighed and shook his head, while Malik tried to ignore the pain that the buzzing needle produced on his skin, shooting through his entire body and sending spastic shocks through his limbs. "You wanted a boyfriend, you got one and then you broke up with him and wanted him back and then he stood in front of your door again and you played dead." Hearing it like this from another person only made things worse.

"Because it's better if we're not seeing each other again. Wanting him back was only a brief moment of weakness and I'm glad that he didn’t come back that day. He is a child, Rauf, he doesn’t know what dating a soldier really means. He thinks everything will be fine and dandy like in some fairy tale but he fails to see what war does to people or what it means to be separated from a person you love. Distance does not make the heart grow fonder, Rauf."

"You say _he_ is the child, Malik." Rauf said and paused the needle for a second, looking at him out of his very sincere brown eyes. "But somehow to me, it seems _you_ are the child in this situation. Really, playing dead only to avoid him so you will not be swayed... At least you could have told him that you really meant it as you said you didn’t want to see him. That really was not very adult like, Malik."

He frowned, but then flinched and hissed as Rauf started his work again. Maybe his friend was secretly enjoying the pain he was inflicting on Malik now. "It was for his best. He does not understand otherwise."

"I think you are just telling this to yourself so you can pretend as if you had not loved him."

"I didn’t love him."

"Yes, you did. You have fallen for him right on your first date and somewhere inside of you, you knew you would and that was why you didn’t want to give him a chance at first. You cannot fool me, my friend. You fell head over heels for that kid, otherwise, you would not have taken him home or even fucked him. You are not like this, Mal, I know this. We grew up together. No matter how desperate you were. You wouldn’t have done this if you wouldn’t have liked him at least."

"Liking someone is differently from loving someone."

Rauf sighed and shook his head once more, but for once he dropped the topic.

"I don’t want to get involved, that’s all." Malik sighed as he sat down with Maria for lunch at their favorite burger place near Maria's shop. Gladly Maria was a girl who liked fast food, then again she was sporty enough to get rid of the extra calories quick enough to treat herself with greasy food. "I don’t want any more drama than I already have in my life, Maria."

"Yes, I understand," Maria said, but the pitch of her voice made it clear what she wanted to say really.

"Maria."

"No! I totally get it, Mal!" She replied her voice even higher this time and dripping with sarcasm. "I mean, hell, if Rauf's and my relationship would have meant drama I wouldn’t have gotten into it for sure! It's not like his mother hates me because I am not a Muslim! It's not like my father hates Rauf because he is no Christian! I totally get what you mean, honey. Drama, really, who wants drama when you could live your life totally boring and without anything happening at all?"

"Maria."

"No honestly, Malik!"

"I got it, Maria. But I still stand behind my decision. I don’t want to deal with this crap. I don’t want to deal with a boy who's getting beaten up by his stepdad or doesn’t understand what _no_ means. This cannot be good, Maria, no matter how much you guys seemed to like him!" To him, it already felt as if his friends were desperate for him to get back together with Altaїr as if this would concern them personally in any way!

Maria sighed before she bit down on her burger. "It's not because of him." She then replied with a full mouth. "It's about you, Mal. We as your friends, Rauf and I, love you and we want to see you happy. You have been happy dating Altaїr! You have been relaxed for once! For Christ's sake, just give the boy a call, I'm sure he forgives you! It's like he said, why not trying to focus on the moment first before making plans for the future. You are always so focused on the future that you fail to see what's right in front of you or happening at this exact moment. You never enjoyed the present, Malik, that is exactly why your relationships never worked out!"

Malik watched her for a moment and Maria seemed not at all disturbed by this, while she was eating. Malik could not bring himself to take a bite. He felt like running again. He felt like going out and start working out to get his head clear again. She was right of course. He knew she was. He knew that this was part of the problem he was always facing when letting his guard down and letting someone into his life. Still, it hurt. Even admitting to this hurt. Acknowledging that it was his fault - even if only partly - hurt.

Five weeks had passed since he broke up with Altaїr and after the first time the boy had shown up at his doorstep afterward, Altaїr had not made a move again to see Malik. He was grateful for that. And then he was not. He wanted to see him and then he was glad that de didn’t. He needed to focus on his training more, visited the shooting ranges more frequently after the breakup. He needed to be in best shape when he would go back to war. It was not long until then and he needed to concentrate. He needed to stay in shape and be the best he could be, so he would come back alive. He did not need a boy like Altaїr, a damsel in distress he needed to worry about.

\-----

Kadar Al-Sayf would never understand his older brother, that was something he just knew, had always known and which would never change apparently. He had thought he did understand him before, when he had tried to ignore Altaїr, maybe fearing Altaїr would hurt him in any way (even though Kadar still thought his brother was invincible), but now he was again at the point in his life where he simply could not understand him any longer. He had been so happy those three weeks together with Altaїr! At least he had appeared happy and Kadar could not recall Malik looking like he did with Altaїr with any of his ex-boyfriends (which Kadar had never liked anyway).

Now he was sitting in his dorm room, loafing around and browsing the internet for distraction. His brother's love life had occupied his poor mind for too long already anyway! He should not care about his brother's stupidity in throwing away a chance of a nearly perfect relationship like this! But oh well, it was quite hard to shoo those thoughts away, when the ex-boyfriend of said brother was one of his best friends now already. Altaїr, however, would only rarely ask him about Malik when they met, but Kadar thought that Altaїr surely had enough other problems to deal with - no matter how much Kadar appreciated that Altaїr would not ask him about his brother all the time. When they first started hanging out shortly after this day at the cinema, he had been afraid that Altaїr would only want to hang out with him so he would get closer to Malik, but gladly this had not been the case at all and Kadar quickly learned about Altaїr's problems with his family.

He was getting into fights with his stepfather Robert more and more apparently. He knew already that Altaїr was prone to getting into fights with all kinds of people for he simply could not keep his big mouth shut, and of course he knew that Altaїr had troubles with his stepfather, but lately it seemed to have gotten worse and worse, to the point where Altaїr barely set foot into his own home to avoid getting into those conflicts anymore. Of course, his brother had not known, simply because Altaїr had not wanted him to know.

He was just logging onto his Facebook account to see if his friends had something going for him this night, as a knock on his door made him groan and his little bunny friend flinch in its cage. Kadar glanced at the clock on his laptop screen. It was already ten PM and even though he had just thought maybe he could go out with his friends tonight still, suddenly he felt not at all like getting up from his bed to open the door. "Who is this?" He instead yelled. His door was normally not locked when he was awake in his room, but since he just came back from taking a shower and had spent a few minutes loafing around naked, too lazy to put clothes on, he still had his door locked (his friends had already caught him twice like this and even he was able to learn from that).

"Open up you lazy pig!" Came a voice shouting through the door and Kadar could only do so much as to roll his eyes. Altaїr had the habit of showing up unannounced, that was indeed nothing new anymore. So, with a deep grunt, Kadar shoved the laptop to the side and slowly got up. Well, at least he had put on some clothes after all. Only seconds after the first knock, Kadar unlocked the door and opened it, before the younger male bolted into the room, blood on his face and his clothes hanging on his body ripped in several places. He seemed truly agitated this time, his hands shaking and suddenly the words he had shouted previously had a different connotation entirely.

"What happened?" Kadar hissed, shaken by the sudden intrusion of his buddy. Altaїr slumped down on the end of his large bed, shoved back the hood of his sweatshirt and ruffled through his unruly light brown hair. He really was the first Arab Kadar had ever seen with such a hair color. He was not the first Arab he had seen with such a light skin tone in comparison to Malik and him or even their parents, but knowing that Altaїr was half European, he guessed it made sense in a way. Altaїr's hands looked awful now that he could have a closer look at them. They were scratched and raw and his knuckles were bloody. His nose had been bleeding at one point, just as well as his lips. But Altaїr would not talk, only stare blankly at the wall across the room.

\------

Malik sighed heavily as he let his book slip into his lap when his phone rang from the nightstand beside him. He had retreated to bed early - earlier than during the time he had spent with Altaїr - because he wanted to get up early and take care of a few things before he would need to organize everything for his departure to Syria again. There were more than enough things in need of his attention. Without looking who was calling him that _late_ , he knew it was his brother because there was no way that it could be someone else. Altaїr had not called him since Malik had not opened the door for him anymore…

"What do you want?" Malik sighed after he had picked up the phone and accepted the call. "Do you even know how late it is?" It was around half past ten. Not _that_ late, but … well … late.

"Malik, this is serious!" His brother replied in a hushed voice, almost a whisper. Surely he was in trouble and now he needed his big brother to help him. So naturally, Malik sat up straight immediately.

"What have you done?"

"What? Nothing! Fuck … No Malik I-"

"Why are you whispering?"

"Because I don’t want Altaїr to know that I call you!" His brother replied sounding angry all of the sudden. Angry and a little bit frightened perhaps too as if he did not know what to do with whatever just happened.

"Kadar, seriously! No! I don’t want this! Just leave me alone, okay?"

"Fuck, Mal, just listen to me! He came to me all bloody and bruised and don’t want to talk about what has happened to him! I bet he got into a fight with his stepdad again!"

"So what?" He replied, flinging his blanket back. "What does that have to do with me?" He growled. Yes, what did this have to do with him? "Altaїr is not my responsibility, Kadar. We broke up - hell we were not even a real couple for god's sake! Let him handle this on his own, he doesn’t need me to rescue him!"

Kadar's sigh was deep and deeply annoyed it was too before he spoke up again. "Are you done now? Just shut up, okay? I don’t want to hear about this anymore, I know that you like to talk yourself into believing things like these, but I don’t call because I want you to rescue him. I'm done with this! Really! If you're so blind and stupid, then so be it! But I didn’t think you would be such an asshole!"

Malik wanted to snap at his brother for that insult, no matter how absurd and silly it was. _Asshole_ was hardly the worst thing he had been called in his life and this entire situation was off! Why should his brother call him to tell him about Altaїr's situation if not to ask him for help? What did he expect from him? Did he want him to take Altaїr in? To protect him? Altaїr did not need protection, that he knew! No matter how stupid this kid was, he did not need his protection or anyone's protection as for that matter! He could fight back, Malik was sure of that and yet he felt his guts clench, hearing from his brother that Altaїr had been hurt - again.

Then again … suddenly it dawned on him, that his brother probably already knew more about his ex-boyfriend than he did. His brother had probably known right from the start about Altaїr's familiar situation! Surely he, Malik, had been the only one who had not known a thing! Maybe it was his own fault. Maybe it was because he had not asked enough questions and why that was, he did not know. He could hardly recognize himself since he had first come into contact with Altaїr, that damned creature.

Only as his brother called out to him in his hushed voice again through the telephone Malik still pressed to his ear, he understood that he had been silent for at least a minute if not longer. "Do you know his parents' address?"

Malik did not know what had brought him to ask where Altaїr's parents - or rather his mother and stepdad - lived. He wished he could say why he did so. He wished he could understand his own reasoning behind that very question, but he didn’t. It just seemed right to do it. Right to come here even that late at night. Maybe it wasn’t. Maybe he would get involved in something he did not want to get involved in, but he knew that Altaїr could not come back here and that was why he now stood in front of the little house the boy had probably grown up in, staring at the red bricks of the façade - or at least that was what he told himself.

He always liked to do the right thing … or at least to believe that he did the right thing. He was a soldier after all and a soldier should always do what was right … right? Still, he refused to see it as if he was rescuing Altaїr. Rescuing other people was something only heroes did and he was no hero - other than this he assumed that tights would not suit him very well.

It was dark, but inside the home, there was still light. The house was in a quiet part of town, far enough away from Canarsie that Malik had needed to drive here by car. Rauf had been so helpful to drive him no matter the hour. Apparently, Altaїr had already wooed all of his friends. He had only needed to say to Rauf that it was for Altaїr and he had jumped right into his pants and car after Malik had shaken him from his bed only half an hour ago. He did not know why he was here now and he most certainly did not know why he had called Rauf to be a part of this whole strange situation. It simply did not make any sense.

Malik took one last deep breath before he then pushed the doorbell and waited. He felt ridiculous as he threw a look back over his shoulder to Rauf and his car, but his friend was already busy browsing the internet on his phone apparently. This was incredibly stupid and he felt incredibly stupid too. There was no sign of life or any kind of reaction at first, but a car standing in the driveway (an old pick-up truck which simply did not fit into the environment at all) and the noise of a TV sounding muffled through the door so Malik rang again … and again - until finally, he heard steps behind the door.

He did not quite know what he had expected to see when the door would be opened for him - hell, he had not expected the door to be opened for him at all, to be honest. Maybe he had expected to see Altaїr's mother standing in the door with curlers in her hair and a worried frown on her face, maybe he had expected just the still enraged stepfather of Altaїr, but certainly not a man beaten bloody and disheveled. Malik stood in awe for a moment, as he stared into the meaty face of the man of the house, the blood that had run from his nose still crusted to his face, his left eye already swollen shut, his lips thick and ripped, bruises slowly blossoming on his red face. The man looked awful and suddenly - even though he had not seen Altaїr himself tonight - he thought that this man must look way worse than Altaїr did when he arrived at Kadar's. The man was of tall build, but he was standing slightly hunched over, clasping his ribcage as if some of them might be bruised or even broken.

"Who are you? What do you want?" The man bellowed, his voice thick with a French accent. Yes, that was indeed a very good question, Malik thought. Who was he? What did he want? It did not seem as if he needed to defend Altaїr's honor now that he was here.

"I…" He started. "I-I am …" _Well?_ "I'm here to get a few of Altaїr's things." Wow, he really felt stupid announcing this.

"And why is that? Are you his boyfriend?" The man snorted with spit shooting from his bloody mouth. A few of his teeth were missing. "Is the little pussy suddenly too afraid to come back and get his stuff himself, yes? After he has beaten me up like a dog, this fucking faggot! Didn’t think they let fags in the army!" The man suddenly exclaimed pointing with his left hand at the dog tags around Malik's neck and suddenly Malik felt how much effort he needed to stay calm and not end Altaїr's work in breaking that assholes already very crooked nose. Altaїr did a good job.

"I don’t know what you are talking about, Sir, but Altaїr is a friend of mine and I'm here to get his stuff, so he doesn’t need to come back to a house where he is abused." This really was a low point in his life, but when he left a few minutes later with a backpack full of Altaїr's clothes and other stuff he could carry, Altaїr's stepdad had a broken jaw and could not even shout insults at him any longer.

"What happened?" Rauf hissed as Malik got back in the car and there the backpack on the backseat, his knuckles bloody and raw.

"I don’t even know." Altaїr clearly was no damsel in distress and he clearly did not need his protection or to be rescued. And Malik … Malik just felt angry. "Could you bring him the stuff? I just want to go to bed." Malik sighed finally, leaning his head against the window of Rauf's car. The cool was pleasant against his suddenly oh so very hot skin. He doubted that his friend would let him go so easily, that his friend would allow him to simply go back home as if nothing had happened tonight, but for once Rauf surprised him as he nodded and then started the car to drive off and bring Malik home.

"I bring it to him tomorrow morning, for now, we should let him sleep."

 


	6. Chapter 6

"So you've broken my stepdad's jaw, huh?" Altaїr asked, but refused to look up at him. He just lay there on the concrete floor of the roof and he did not seem to mind the little ants and bugs crawling around next to him, or the moss and grass coming through the old stone blocks he was resting his body on, pillowing hid head oh so lazily on his right arm. He looked bad, but certainly not as bad as his stepdad and his bruises already began to heal, still, there were those distinctive dark marks around his elegant jaw line, his little stubbles making the impression all the more worse from the distance. One week had passed since Malik had gone to Altaїr's house to get his stuff and he still did not know why he did it in the first place – let alone why he punched that man so hard his jaw broke. And most certainly he did not know why he had followed Altaїr's invitation, at last, to come here to this place, to this strange house.

It was already getting dark, the sun was slowly setting beyond the skyscrapers that were forming the bay of New York. "You didn’t lie, the sunset really is beautiful from here." Malik sighed and sat down heavily next to him.  "So why did you ask me to come here?"

He did not want to talk about Altaїr's stepdad or the reasons why he had punched him. He felt embarrassed about this. Yes, that was the truth. He felt embarrassed that he had gone out of his way to punch another human being just because he had thought this one person at risk in some way or another. He felt terribly dumb to know that Altaїr had inflicted much more pain to this man, that he was no weakling who needed protection and that he still punched this man anyway. It was not because Robert had been standing in his way – not only because of that, though. He had been oh so very angry that this man had punched Altaїr – no matter what had happened between them or if Altaїr maybe deserved it even because really no one deserved to be punched. He felt conflicted. Malik had always been a person set in his morals, firm in the way he was dealing with things, honest to the people around him and more importantly to himself. Since Altaїr stepped into his life everything was different apparently. He was no violent man. He was a soldier sure, but he never ran around beating people up for any reason whatsoever, but suddenly he did punch a man he did not even know and only because of Altaїr. Maybe the most frightening thing about this was not that he had not needed to do this, but that he would do it again if it would come to this.

"Thanks for my stuff, but why did you go there to get it? I would've gotten it myself someday." His tone was different than usually. It was not so much his usual quite cheerful way of speaking, not his somewhat sarcastic tone. He sounded like a kid. He sounded awkward and not like this confident young man, Malik had met a few weeks ago - even though by now Malik was a little bit more aware of the fact that this confidence had been a little bit of a mask Altaїr would wear for the world to see, so no one would question him. By now he understood, that Altaїr wanted his friends to think that he was this independent, catlike person, coming and going as he pleased, living his life the way he chose to, to impress people like Malik's little brother only so they would never question the reality of things and never try to look behind this façade.

"No, you wouldn’t." Malik then replied because that was what he felt about this situation. He knew Altaїr would not have gotten back to his home to get his stuff. He had been afraid, that was why he had lashed out on Robert, that was why he ran off to Kadar's place. He would not say it, for he felt as if he would hurt Altaїr's pride with that comment and pride seemed to be the only thing he possessed as of right now. He had no home any longer and he certainly had not much money. "Why did you fight anyway?"

"He started nagging me about moving out again. He said I should go and live on my own after I'm never home anyway. Robert always tries to throw me out, so he doesn’t need to _pay_ for me any longer - not that he would've ever bought me something anyway. My mother was the one to buy me stuff when I was little. Robert only yelled at me and forced me to _go out, be a man_ and _earn my keep_." He scoffed and waved his hand dismissively, staring into the slowly darkening sky. They were on the roof of some apartment complex Malik did not know and he had no clue, who was living here. Maybe Altaїr did not know either.  Surely he found this place on his little adventures and fell in love with the view over Brooklyn. "He started to shout at me that I should just go and live with my _boyfriend_ and that he doesn’t want to share a roof with a flag anyway, that my mother was thinking the same thing but didn’t want to tell me."

Malik was silent for a moment. He could imagine how that might have felt to Altaїr. He was oh so very young still, only eighteen and Malik remembered still the fear and panic when his father had found out about his sexuality, when his father turned to him to speak to him about this and though his father had never punched or beaten him in any way – he had been terribly afraid back then. Altaїr was living with this man and his nature for quite a while already and yet he suddenly seemed like the frightened kid that he surely was still deep inside.

"I always hated people like him, that was why I punched him." He said and though it was not the entire truth, it was at least part of the truth, he thought. The moment he had seen Robert face to face, he had hated the man, had felt disgusted for the man. "I wanted to become a policeman originally, because of people like him. In my community, we had a family with such a man as a father. He has beaten up his children every day, even molested his little daughter. He was later killed by his oldest son and I thought that this boy now needed to suffer a life behind bars for protecting his siblings and mother only because our local police had done nothing. Later I realized that this was not the right way to go for me. I grew up and I recognized the corruption within the force and how many bad people there are within the police, how many sadists. I don’t think the army is that much different in that regard and I don’t have the illusion of doing something good for the world, but at least I can feel like protecting the country."

There it was again, he thought, those words only Altaїr seemed to get out of him. He did not quite understand what it was with this boy, but when he was with him he was not afraid, to tell the truth entirely. There were instances when it was not necessary to tell the entire truth and then there were instances when he would just say what was on his mind without being questioned like now. Usually, he was not the type of guy who carried his heart on his sleeve like this.

"You should be a doctor instead." Altaїr sighed and looked at him for the first time since Malik sat beside him, his amber eyes shimmering like beautiful orbs in the light of the slowly setting sun and the pink sky above them. "You could be an army doctor. You would be good at this and you would be able to help."

"I don’t know." Malik smirked. "I don’t like seeing blood and gore." Though he felt a bit flattered, that Altaїr was so confident about this suggestion for his future career. Truth was, he had never envisioned being a sniper for the US military anyway when he had made plans for his future.

"Have you seen a bomb going off near you?" Altaїr then asked and sat up, but Malik shrugged his shoulders.

"Not near me, no. I usually am too far off to be involved really. I have seen bombs going off before, yes. And sometimes it was me who was responsible for explosions. Sometimes we cause bombs to explode so nobody gets hurt by them. But I've never seen someone being ripped apart by a bomb if that’s what you meant." He then grinned and he was very well aware that he could call himself lucky for that. It could have been different. It could have been a lot worse already. He could sit here with PTSD from all the things he had witnessed, like so many other soldiers coming back home only to be sent back again shortly after. He knew that many soldiers were committing or contemplating suicide somewhere along the lines after they came home, but no one ever talked about this. Maybe this was his greatest fear, to be shaken so much by the events in his life, that he would not find the strength to go on further.

"So why did you want me to come?" He asked finally, even though Altaїr's reasoning suddenly did not seem to matter anyway.

"So why did you come?" Altaїr replied snickering before he suddenly scrambled to mount Malik's lap, straddling his hips between his long legs so that Malik could hardly help himself not to grab his thighs. Fuck. Fuck indeed. Oh, this impish little shit. He could, of course, throw him off and just leave, but when Altaїr snaked his long fingers into Malik's neck, he could only sigh and suddenly felt very helpless.

"Altaїr, we broke up." He clarified though this sounded a lot weaker than he wanted it to sound, coming from a man whose hands were resting on the sides of this boy's legs.

"Yes, we did." Altaїr nodded, totally acknowledging and dismissing this statement at the very same instance. "But you came nonetheless, right? And we hadn’t had a proper goodbye if you ask me." Well, true, although that was mainly because Altaїr had just left without a word of goodbye the morning after the storm had hit and now they were here again. Stuck in this loop apparently.

"So what are you proposing then?" Malik grinned, for it was obvious was Altaїr wanted to propose even without him biting down on Malik's neck after he leaned down a bit more. This was the exact reason why he had been so glad Altaїr had just left that infamous morning! If he would have stayed to talk about it and maybe _say goodbye_ , this break-up thing would have never worked. Well … not that it did anyway.

"A goodbye?" Altaїr purred against his jawline. "Or we could just get back together and enjoy the time until you need to go back to Syria."

"No way, you prick." Malik huffed and finally freed himself from Altaїr in throwing the boy off of his lap. Altaїr landed on his back on the concrete and though he winced he started laughing, right before Malik rolled over him, crushing him with all his weight because of course, he was heavier than this lanky kid. "There is no way I put up with you any longer."

"Whaaaaat? No way, why? But I wanted to serenade you!" Altaїr grinned and Malik cocked an eyebrow, leaning in closer.

"Well then here's your chance. Serenade me, maybe I will be seduced by it." He was already doomed anyway, wasn't he? He wanted to end this for good, but he suddenly doubted that he would find the needed strength to do that and he could not even begin to process how pathetic this really was.

"Now it's too late, I forgot the lyrics. It was something about blue eyes, though." Altaїr chuckled and tried to steal a kiss from him, but Malik moved his head back, so he would escape those dangerous lips but was still able to glance down at him.

"My eyes are brown. I think you had Kadar in mind, as you chose whatever song you wanted to serenade me with." He criticized with a playful frown on his face, even though he never thought he would be able to pull off a facial expression like this, for his face was normally quite stuck in the very same expression.

"Really? Huh. Maybe I should date your brother then. I'm down for blue eyes."

"Is that so? Do that then." Malik grinned sitting back on his heels again. "My brother marveled you when we first met anyway, I don’t think you'll have a hard time getting into his pants, but I think you will get in trouble with my parents. They can't have two gay sons."

"What a shame. Maybe I'll take you instead then." He declared before getting up and practically lunging at Malik to throw him off his heels and pin him to the ground again.

"Isn’t there anyone to help me?" Malik grinned and yet it was him, dragging Altaїr down to lock their mouth into a kiss he had not even known he had missed. He knew that he was damning himself, even more, doing this and yet he could not stop himself from doing it anyway when his hands were already unzipping Altaїr's stupid hoodie. He did not even care that they were on a roof of some house he did not even know. Altaїr was shirtless atop of him within seconds and immediately shivering no matter the humid air around them up here on the roof. It was hard not to laugh at him or to wonder how this guy would survive the winter. He could already see Altaїr wearing three layers of clothes and a thick down jacket only to protect himself against the cold in September.

Later they lay side by side on the hard concrete ground of the roof, not caring for the bugs crawling over the ground or their naked forms laying sprawled out here. If anyone was to come up here for whatever reason, they would have quite a lot explaining to do, he guessed, but he did not really care all that much. He was an honorable soldier of the US Army after all. He could lie around naked wherever he liked to! He would miss this when he was back in Syria for sure. What a weird thing! What a bloody weird world since Altaїr was in it with him! Suddenly somehow he was not able to suppress any of his urges any longer. Suddenly somehow he was not able to resist temptation at all – and sad thing was, he did not even care or mourn his loss of control. He felt like a teenager again – which normally was always a bad thing, because really, who in their right mind wanted to be or feel like a teenager again?

"You should really come and watch me in a few days." Altaїr hummed lying beside him under the starry sky as if they were in some stupid sappy movie, but he did not wiggle closer, as Malik would have expected him to. He just lay there in all his perfection, without a care in the world or his own nudity. And why should he? Why should anyone with a body such as his feel ashamed of being naked? Hell, he really was a lost cause. He was going nuts apparently. He was going totally insane. How in the hell was he supposed to go back to Syria and spend all this time alone there, being forced to think back to this night or any of the nights he had spent with Altaїr? It was not that he was in love with the boy, he was in love with the feeling he gave him. Yes, that would be the proper thing to say, he guessed. He liked how easy and light everything felt around that stupid kid.

"Watch you doing what? Running around naked through the city?" Malik scoffed as he crossed his arms to pillow his head. He had never taken the time lying around to look at the stars and the light pollution inside the city made it hard anyway, he guessed. Suddenly, however, it seemed just the right moment to do exactly that, to just take a moment time out of his normally quite busy days to lay here, relax and watch the stars.

"Interesting thought." Altaїr replied with a small grin. "No, I accepted Abbas's challenge. We meet up on Friday to see who of us is better at parkour, at last, to finally put an end to this debate for good."

"I don’t think that’s a good idea. You shouldn’t go down on his level only so he finally shuts up. Didn’t you tell me that he was a weirdo?"

"No I said he was a prick." Altaїr corrected Malik with a small smirk before he propped himself up again and crossed his legs sitting up straight and stretching like a cat. The curve of his spine was delicious, just as the little goosebumps all over his body.

"But you also said that he was always getting himself and others in dangerous situations, didn’t you. I don’t want you to compete with him." Why was he even arguing about this with him? Altaїr already decided on doing that and who was he to talk him out of this decision?

"Well, good that you're not my boyfriend then, right?" That was precisely the point. "If you were my boyfriend, I would maybe listen to you and not compete with him, but since you are not, I don’t need to listen to your opinion, Mr. Al-Sayf."

"Are you trying to force me to be your boyfriend again and not even have the decency to try to bribe me with gummi bears this time?"

"Maybe."

Malik too finally sat up but he did not make a move to dress again. His mother would not be proud of him for sure right now. No, she would beat him with a wooden spoon f she could see him up here. "It’s the first time I stargazed since my teen years." He grinned silently, craning his head just a bit so he would be able to still watch the stars. "They are not as clear to see here as they are in my hometown for sure, but no less beautiful I guess. The last time I stargazed was when I was seventeen, lying near the cornflower fields. That was what we used to do in such a small town back in my days."

"You mean before the telephone was invented?"

"No, honey, I'm not that old. I meant before the internet was invented of course." Malik snickered before he finally grabbed for his jeans and shorts to put them on again. His skin was uncomfortably damp from sweat, due to their activities and the heat of the day still lingering in the air now that night had fallen upon the city.

"So are you coming or not?" Altaїr then caught his attention again without moving in on the conversation about stargazing, instead, the boy just sat there and stared at him while Malik was putting his clothes back on, suddenly well aware of how late it was and how wrong it was what he had done. This boy was a child still. He was eighteen still. They had no future and giving into his bodily demands when he was with Altaїr was not right. He was the older one of them. He should know better. Of course, Altaїr said he would wait and that they could use the rest of Malik's stay here in the US to make good memories together, but he was the adult in this situation, wasn’t he? Of course, Altaїr would say all those things because he did not know any better! For him it was much easier, wasn’t it? He would soon start college, would soon forget Malik, would soon move on and find a new guy he would be interested in and it was Malik who would get hurt when he would come back only to be faced with the reality of this damned situation again. There was no way this could work, so better just stop right here and now!

And yet he wanted to follow Altaїr's example! He wanted to enjoy their time together! He wanted to have a good time before he would go back to war and desolation and horror – but he was not like Altaїr. He would not be able to move on as freely as this teen and maybe Altaїr was not even aware of the impact this right here, this between them would have on Malik if they would keep it up. Altaїr was like a cat, always coming and going as he pleased, doing whatever he wanted, not listening to anybody. It was a joke when Altaїr told him he would listen to Malik's opinion if he was his boyfriend because Altair would never listen to anyone's opinion; never do what anyone would tell him to do. Malik on the other hand … he had always been more of a dog person, to be honest. He had not been happy to get a cat back then from his brother. He had never liked their way of living, the independence they possessed. He had always seen himself with a big dog at one point during his life. He liked to follow orders and he was good at this, that was why he was so good as a sniper. And yet he had let Sergeant Pepper into his life and started to love that devil and now he had let another cat into his life and he would love him if he would let him stay, which would make the inevitable end of this all the more harder and painful for him.

"No, I don't think so." He sighed putting on his shoes. "I need to get ready for departure, Altaїr. I don’t have time for silly stuff such as this anymore."


	7. Chapter 7

It was Friday already. Only hours were dividing him now from his departure back to Syria. Maybe that was a bit much to say. He would go on Thursday of the next week, so he had still seven days left to spend as he wanted, as he recognized when he opened his eyes on this faithful sunny Friday morning. He had spent his last full week in the US just as he wanted to (with the exception of two separate incidents that was). He had worked out more than normally anyway, he and Rauf had almost finished up his new tattoo on his back, he had organized everything that needed to be organized, had bought all the cat food Maria and Rauf would need for feeding Pepper when the little demon would stay with them and he had even visited his mom and dad yesterday – a tedious and much uncomfortable visit, lined with all those nasty questions only a mother could ask in terms of Malik having a boyfriend. He still needed to beat up Kadar for telling their mother – even though Malik had already told her, that he did not have a boyfriend.

Yet – no matter that Altaїr was not his boyfriend – he found himself more often on the boy's YouTube Channel or Facebook page to see what he was up to. After he had left him on the roof that night he had not heard of him again and a part of him felt sorry. Maybe he had behaved like a total asshole, but it seemed as though this was the only way the boy would understand. It was better to crush his hopes and dreams now instead of continuing only to be miserable later and dragging out the inevitable. His mother told him that this was dumb and his friends surely agreed with her on that matter and maybe they were even right, but Malik was not willing to risk it anyway.

He liked Altaїr more than he was comfortable to tell. There was no point in lying to himself about this. He would not stalk him over social media otherwise. The truth was that he wanted to see if Altaїr would post something about this competition with Abbas right away. He wanted to see if the boy listened to him anyway or if he really was as stupid as to agree with this man on a competition after everything he had told Malik about the dude. Parkour could be a dangerous sport, Malik knew that and he knew that Altaїr knew that. No matter how proudly Altaїr was bragging about his various injuries or broken bones in his videos, the boy knew the danger and unlike Malik, Altaїr seemed to be that type of person who needed to fall flat on his face to learn. He needed to make mistakes to learn from them, whilst Malik rather learned from the mistakes other people made. This was the more cautious approach on life surely, maybe even the more boring. And yet that kid knew the risks and he knew what he was doing, that too Malik had seen in his videos. Altaїr was pretty good in what he was doing, maybe even the best out of the people he surrounded himself with, but he was also big mouthy and arrogant. He was always expecting himself to be the best and he would always try to prove that to everyone around him. Someday this would be his downfall – that was why Malik felt so worried on this Friday. Until noon there was no announcement on his social media that he would indeed compete with Abbas, but Malik refused to feel relieved about it. He did not want to read about a teenager that had fallen to their death doing parkour the next day and recognize Altaїr's photo in the newspaper.

"Malik Al-Sayf you will get gray hair if you keep worrying yourself like this." Maria sighed over her cup of tea, glancing at him in disbelieve and annoyance at the same time – a weird mixture of emotion truly. "I mean really, Malik, you broke up with this kid, then you punched his stepfather so hard you broke his jaw, then you fucked the kid again and told him again that you won't get in a relationship with him again and now you're sitting here and worrying yourself stupid over this kid. Could you please finally decide for the love of god or Allah or the flying spaghetti monster? Please, Malik! You are annoying all of us! Rauf even tries to avoid answering the phone when you call now and you know how nervous he gets when he feels as if he is doing something wrong!"

Well, if one wanted to get true answers without sugarcoating anything, it was best to go ask Maria Thorpe for sure. "So that’s why I couldn’t reach him yesterday." Malik huffed. "A fine set of friends I have there." He crossed his arms in defiance and refused to take a sip from his sweet Turkish tea. He did not even like tea, let alone sweet tea. "So if I annoy you with my love life, maybe I should stop consoling my friends for advice then-"

"And live a lonely, bitter life. Yes, Malik, we all know you are exceptionally good at being miserable and bitter. Don’t forget, Rauf and I know you best. We are your oldest friends – well, one might say we are your only friends because you scared everyone else away!"

"So why you are keeping up with me then anyway?" He scowled.

"Because I love you. You are my best friend, Malik. We played in kindergarten together, I stole your toys, and you shoved me from the swings! This is love, Malik! You are like my idiot little brother, I would do anything for you and if you force me to punch you, I'll do it."

"I don’t need to be punched, Maria! I can handle this myself, in fact, I have handled this myself."

"Yeaaaaaah you did and now you are even more miserable than before. Just stop it, Malik, you cannot fool me. And if you are going to pick up your phone to check Altaїr's social media one more time, I swear to god you will need to buy another new phone again or go visit your proctologist, because I shoved it up your ass so high you will only get it out through surgery!"

Malik leaned back in his chair again, for it was true, that his fingers had twitched in the direction of his phone again. He could not help it! What if Altaїr would really be that dumb as to compete with Abbas? He groaned and ruffled his hair instead of crossing his arms again. "So what shall I do then? Please do enlighten me oh great Miss Thorpe!"

She took her last sip of tea before she casually leaned back and closed her eyes for a moment as to gather her senses. "You should go to him now and stop him from doing something stupid and then you should tell him how you feel. It's gonna get hard, I know. I know you will not have an easy time in Syria anyway and that this only makes things worse, but you will make mistakes if not! You think you will be lacking concentration when you will be in a relationship with him but not at his side, worrying about the things he might do when you are not around – but Malik, you will be much more lacking concentration overseas when you are going like you are now, because you will keep wondering what could have been! I know that about you. This kid could be the strength you need over there, a reason to keep your mind together because we both know that things over there are tough and you once told me yourself, that the happiest men over there, are those who have a family back home. Those are the people who are surviving or doing their best to survive and keeping their minds intact because they have a reason to. Altaїr could be your reason."

"Don’t be so dramatic." Malik huffed as he felt how his ears grew hot against his will. Oh, this was baloney. He did not know what to do or feel or think anymore. Maria was right, he knew that and she knew that he knew, but this did not make it any better for Malik now! He could not just storm Altaїr's practice grounds with all his friends around and grab him like in some movie! He did not want to! He could not do something like this! It was not right! He had hurt this kid and that he knew even though Altaїr had not shown any signs of hurt. He was. It would only be natural for him to be hurt and if he was not, he would have contacted Malik after their last meet up no matter the way it had ended. He was just a kid and Malik had used him. He had fucked him and then left him and that he did two times already. It would not be right for him to now go after the kid and ruin the next months of his life until he would come back home again. And yet, until now it had been Altaїr coming after him again and again. Maybe it was his turn now.

"You know that this little competition he does with his rival starts around two o'clock, yes?" Maria shook him from his thoughts again. She stared at him over the phone she held in her hands. He had not even noticed how she had taken his phone from the table. It really did not matter anyway all of the sudden. It was half past one already. Malik just snuck his phone from Maria's fingers without thinking twice. "Where?" He asked immediately but looked at his phone where Altaїr's Twitter page was still open, announcing to his followers the time and place of the race he wanted to have with Abbas in half an hour. He knew the location well and he also knew very well that it was not Altaїr's usual training grounds. "That’s a construction side." He concluded with a dark frown and got up only to shove the phone into his pocket. "We must go immediately."

"We?" Maria enquired with her left eyebrow arched s high Malik was earnestly concerned for her but got up anyway. His tea was long forgotten anyway and too cold for Maria to consider drinking it now herself.

"I don’t have a car – You do."

Like that they left the café under the surprised looks of the staff and made a beeline for Maria's car standing at the corner of the street to their left-hand side. It did not take them long to get to that construction side Altaїr had named within his twitter post (probably not even thinking about the stupidity of shouting it from the rooftops that he was going to invade a place he had no right to be at). Malik knew it was a heavy frequented spot for people like Altaїr, teenagers who wanted to do all kinds of stupid stuff. Malik said it was a construction side, but the fact was, that it was more a vacant house that was to be either taken down soon or to be renovated, he was not quite sure which it was, but at the moment there was no construction work going on there anyway. It was perfect for parkour athletes apparently – it was dangerous. It was unpredictable. It was nuts! It was exactly what Altaїr said Abbas would do. Why in the world did this idiot agree to engage in this, when he already told Malik that he knew better?

When he and Maria finally got out of her car after finding a parking spot and arrived at the construction side, they sneaked right through a gap in the fence on the construction side, like they did years ago when they snuck into the community pools at night to go for a swim in summer. This, however, was less romantic or nostalgic. They arrived later than Malik had thought they would due to the traffic and when they finally reached the point where the other athletes stood around, Altaїr and Abbas were already gone. They had set up a starting point near the at the moment vacant power shovel and Malik could just see how Abbas and Altaїr started up one side of the metal scaffold that was set up around the building for the construction workers to walk on.

Malik had seen Altaїr's videos before. He had seen him climb up scaffolds such as this one before. He had seen him go up some ridiculously high buildings before, jump and do all kinds of crazy shit and although he knew that Altaїr knew what he was doing and how far he could push his limits, he felt tense. What if Altaїr was too arrogant? What if that boy was overestimating himself too much? What if Abbas had him now exactly where he wanted him? It was stupid! Incredibly stupid! The scaffold was shaking under their weight and the pace they were climbing up and before Malik even knew it they were up on the roof and vanished into thin air.

"Where are they going?" Malik hissed as he grabbed one of the bystanders roughly at the shoulder, staring the poor kid into the ground. He was fifteen at best, wearing a surprised look on his youthful face by the sudden attack of the Arab and seemed for a moment to panic, fully believing that he might be a police officer wanting to bust all of them for intruding on this construction side illegally in brought daylight, but then the boy finally pointed south.

"T-To the other end." He stammered and though Malik could hardly believe that they would just run across the roof he started running himself. It had been raining a lot lately and this construction side looked like the workers had not been here for at least a week, for whatever reason. Chances were good that there could be puddles of water on the roof or wherever those two idiots were going. Chances were good the ground might be slippery or porous. He heard Maria running after him and he was glad, that she was at least not questioning him at the moment, while Malik ran into the building that was torn down to the foundation walls. He followed his guts, no more, no less and his guts told him to keep an eye out for his fucking boyfriend.

Well, he was totally fucked apparently.

When they entered the house he could already hear Abbas and Altaїr. The two of them were running through the building, jumping over broken down walls and tools by the sound of it. "Altaїr you fucking idiot come down here this instant!" Malik found himself yelling through the building with his own echo rippling from the naked walls around them like a mother calling for her misbehaving children. He could spot them through a hole in the ceiling shortly and though it looked quite impressive as Altaїr flung his long legs over a cement mixer, Malik only thought about the possible dangers awaiting the boy. This whole building was in danger to collapse, that was why this was a construction side! The floor could break down under them and already little bits of cement were flaking down from the ceiling, dusting the air of the ground floor where Malik and Maria were so it was hard to breathe without inhaling the dust. What if he would fall over some machine? What if his foot would get caught in a cable?

"Malik!" Maria hissed behind him with a small cough, holding a hand in front of her mouth due to the dust and only then he noticed that it was probably not the first time she tried to get his attention since they entered this building. "You cannot stop him, just let's get out of here and wait by the finishing line, okay? There are surely other people up there and around. He knows what he's doing and when he wants to risk breaking his neck, then please for the love of god let him!"

Of course she was right, but nonetheless, she needed to almost _drag_ him out of the building through another hole in the wall where a door was supposed to be. They carefully climbed over rubble and cables, before they slowly stepped into daylight again. Above them Malik could hear the cheering voices of other athletes, watching Abbas and Altaїr during their race and even though his heart was pounding, he would have loved to see it himself. He should not even be here, honestly. He should be at home, taking care of the things he had to do. If Altaїr got hurt, so what? It was not his problem! He just left the kid again! But it seemed he could just not get out of this undying circle anymore. He would push away Altaїr only to run after him again like he was doing just now! It was weird and it was dangerous. This could not be healthy or good in any way and he needed to get away from this!

But he could not.

When they stepped outside it started raining again. It was not pouring from the skies, as he might have expected it to be, only a drizzle, almost not even noticeable. There were a few people standing by the finish line already and when Malik looked up, walking towards the finish line he could already spot Altaїr, heading for the scaffold to come down apparently. A part of him was glad to see that he was apparently quite alright still and the other part was suddenly amazed - not to say flabbergasted - when he watched the artistic way Altaїr chose to come down the scaffold. He did not just climb! He jumped from side to side, grabbing for the bars as if it meant nothing while the whole thing was shaking violently under the impact of his weight.

Abbas was only arriving at the edge of the roof as Altaїr was already two stories down the scaffold, coming closer and closer to the ground, when suddenly… he slipped.


	8. Chapter 8

Malik was god darn sure, he had never been as nervous as he had felt driving to the hospital this day. Had he not had just told everyone and their mom that Altaїr was no damsel in distress that needed him as his knight in shining armor to rescue him from his own stupidity or a possible threat? Well, he had not rescued him for sure and yet he felt as if he was walking through a thick cloud of cliché and drama. Maybe he had been dreaming everything up until this point or maybe he had been cursed by an evil witch to live the rest of his days in a bad soap opera and had just forgotten about it. Whatever it was, Altaїr was now lying in a snow-white bed, hooked to machines and tubes and all kinds of gruesome things and all Malik could think of was that he was going to hit him so hard with a book on the head as soon as he would get the opportunity to do it, that Altaїr would fall right back into unconsciousness again.

When he closed his eyes he could still see him fall. In the moment when it happened, he had not quite grasped what had been taken place, but now he knew that Altaїr had simply slipped due to the faint drizzle, making the metal bars more slippery than expected. At first instinct, he had thought it must have been the fault of this man called Abbas, that he had done something to make Altaїr fall, but the truth was that he did not. He was no evil villain from a Disney movie. He had been just as shocked and panicked as everyone else and while everyone else had fled the scene, it had been Maria calling the ambulance immediately. He would have liked to say it had been him, but sadly his brains had simply just stopped responding the minute Altaїr's body had met the ground. Luckily the boy had managed to properly introduce himself to almost every metal bar on his way down, which had at least slowed down his fall just enough to not break every bone in his body or turn his head into mush when it hit the ground finally.

And now he was lying in this room and Malik could not bring himself to set foot into it. Outside it was dark, the air humid and hot. The rain shower in the afternoon had been a quite short one and failed to bring the most welcome relief it had promised originally. Malik and Maria had not been allowed to join Altaїr in the ambulance - Well, that was hardly a surprise, really. He was no relative of Altaїr, nothing more than a stranger in the eyes of the paramedics and everyone else. At least they managed to escape the questions of the police that way - for now, that was.

Almost one hour after Altaїr had entered the ER, Malik had seen his mother for the first time. She was a gorgeous woman and she looked nothing like Altaїr. She was of pale complexion, with light blue eyes and fair hair. She was younger than Malik's mother and though this was hardly a surprise judging by the fact that Altaїr too was younger than him, it indicated that she had him quite early on in her life, but Malik tried not to think too hard about the circumstances of Altaїr's birth or how her marriage to Altaїr's father had come about. It was not his place to dwell on, though he suddenly felt as if he had a clearer picture of this situation. Robert had accompanied his wife and for a moment Malik was sure he had seen earnest worry for his stepson in his face, but then Roberts's eyes had fallen upon Malik, sitting on the sidelines waiting, and he had appeared decidedly more worried about the hospital bill. He had not said anything to Malik, as his wife had turned to the stranger and his friend Maria and rather acted as if he had never seen Malik prior to this day, while his wife had thanked Malik and Maria with tears in her eyes that they had called an ambulance for her stupid, stupid little boy.

That was the moment when it had hit Malik fully. Altaїr was loved. Really, this was not a big revelation for normal people, but to Malik it was. After all those weeks he knew Altaїr already, he had always felt that Altaїr was at odds with his mother - not to mention his stepfather. He had thought that maybe his mother was turning a blind eye to the abuse Altaїr had suffered from Robert, because she was disappointed with his life's _choices_ , including being gay (as if this was a choice really, a bitter part of him thought). He had been sure that his mother was distant and cold towards her only child, maybe even regretting having him in the first place. But in the moment when she had thanked him and hugged him and Maria with way more strength in her thin and frail body than Malik had thought a petite woman such as her could possess, he had felt like the biggest idiot rummaging the planet. He did not even know why he had thought so bad of her. Altaїr had never quite talked in a bad way about his mother, really. He did not like her choice of husband, surely, but he never openly attacked her in Malik's presence. Not even his stepdad really. Maybe it was Malik's brain that had been brainwashed by a lifetime of bad TV Drama and Dr. Phil that made him come to those conclusions right away instead of asking Altaїr about his relationship with his mother or his life at home.

He had been adamant to think that there must be a reason that Altaїr was rather staying at friends places than at home! In his mind, he had painted everything dark and dangerous concerning Altaїr's home. He had been shocked how nice the little house had looked when he first entered it to get his stuff, even though he had not had time to have a proper look around. And now … now he was really doubting that there had ever been a decent reason for Altaїr's behavior other than his rocky relationship with his stepdad. Maybe he was really just a stupid teenager; feeling betrayed by his mother, feeling unloved maybe even. But this woman had hugged him and Maria and he had felt her deep-rooted fear for her son, whom she may not have seen in weeks! Hell, not even that Malik knew! When was the last time she had talked to her son? Seen her son? Had she been there when Altaїr had beaten up Robert? Altaїr had once said that she was a nurse, so maybe … not?

It was almost midnight when Malik was finally able to paint a picture in his mind about everything that had happened in the past. He could see it quite clearly now, really. He could see the bratty behavior Altaїr showed towards Robert, the resentment he had faced the man with because he was another man in his mother's life. Malik had already understood that Altaїr did not like to share and surely he had been used to being alone with his mother and having all her love and affection to himself. He could fathom the nights his mother had been on duty when he would pick a fight with Robert just to pick a fight. Of course, this would never excuse someone for beating a kid or really anyone. But now Malik began to understand.

"Let's go home, Mal." Maria sighed when she came back to him, trying to suppress a big fucking yawn. It was only then that Malik noticed how tired he suddenly felt from this day's events. He felt conflicted, to say the least. He did not quite know what to think about this whole damned situation. He really didn’t. Should he be angry with Altaїr for not having told him that his mother loved him to death? Well, it was not Altaїr's fault that Malik had painted a quite different picture of his mother in his mind, right? He only knew that he was worried sick for Altaїr.

"No, I think I'm staying."

"You can come back tomorrow. Come now. You can crash at my place. I don’t want you all by yourself tonight. You are not helping him when you are staying." Maria sighed and gently tucked at Malik's left sleeve to get him to stand again after he had previously complained about how much those uncomfortable stools were hurting his back.

"He could have died."

"Correct, but he didn’t. He was lucky. But even if he had died, this would have been his own fault." And of course she was right, Malik knew that and still, it felt so hard to acknowledge it. Even if he had not treated Altaїr like he did last time they had met, he would have still done this stupid thing today, no matter what he had said to him on that damned roof. Altaїr always did what he wanted. He had been arrogant and stupid and he had paid the price for this.

Malik did not come back the next day. He did not go to the hospital the day after that either. Three days passed before he finally set foot in that hospital again and he did so only because he was being forced by Maria. There was not much time left for him until he would depart for Syria again and she had yelled at him quite impressively that he better started using the rest of this time, for he could as well die in combat overseas and then regret not having visited Altaїr at least once. Apparently, he was not the only one who was good at being dramatic.

He did not have flowers with him or something to read. The only thing he brought with him was a bag full of all kinds of different sweets and he did not even know if Altaїr was allowed to eat any of this. It was not like he had not wanted to come here right on the next day, really. But when he had arrived at the hospital, a part of him had started panicking and imagining the horror that might await him. The first thing that had come to his mind was: What if he is paralyzed? Stupid of course, but Malik had not known the impact the fall might have had on Altaїr! He had seen him fall, yes, but he had not quite seen if he had bashed his head in on an iron bar or smashed against it with his back, even after he had knelt beside him on the ground until the ambulance had arrived. He probably did. He had only seen Altaїr slamming against a few of the bars before crashing hard to the ground! For all, he knew Altaїr could be out of commission forever! For all, he knew he could have broken every bone in his body! He could have suffered severe brain damage! He simply did not know a thing about his injuries when he first came back, because of course, no one would tell a stranger!

Maria and Rauf had seen Altaїr the next day and his brother too had already visited him. It was only because of them that this time he made it to Altaїr's room in the hospital because they had ensured him that Altaїr was not a potato rotting in this bed but still _him_ \- whatever that meant in Altaїr's case. The truth was, Malik felt horrible standing in front of this door. He had not visited this kid at all during the last three days. He had acted like the biggest asshole in the entire fucking universe. That much was true and Altaїr and he both knew this. The boy surely did not even want to see him anymore and yet Malik finally braced himself, knocked on the door and entered the room without waiting for permission, not caring if he would interrupt something.

Even if Altaїr did not want to see him anymore, he needed to face this. He needed to face him and hear it from his mouth so he could move on and not wonder what could have been if he would not have been a coward. And after all, he was a soldier, wasn’t he?

Altaїr really was no potato rotting in this bed hooked to machines and tubes. He was sitting upright in his bed and … _knitting_? It was apparent to Malik, that Altaїr had reckoned with someone other than Malik, for he only looked up from the work in his lap when Malik finally closed the door behind himself and cleared his throat. There was a thick band aide wrapped around Altaїr's head - so much in fact that it indicated to Malik that this was more than a tiny wound that had needed stitching. When Altaїr's eyes met his, his whole body seemed to turn red quite feverishly within just milliseconds, so that Malik really was shortly afraid he had triggered something in Altaїr that might be dangerous. It was not, how he understood a second later. Altaїr was only embarrassed that Malik caught him … knitting. And knitting the boy was. He had the large knitting needled still between his fingers when he seemed to realize that it really was Malik standing there.

"So … now you know my dirty little secret." It was almost comical how he said it, his face still of a bright red color, the knitting needles in his hands like dangerous weapons, a ball of light blue wool lying in his lap and the TV running with some stupid Quiz show in the background, still Malik refused to laugh. He should be livid, shouldn’t he? After all, Altaїr had gotten himself in this situation after he had blown Malik's warning into the wind and not listening to him.

"Doesn’t that hurt?" He quietly asked, gesturing to his bandaged left wrist. "You should keep it quiet if it's broken."

"Only fractured." Altaїr shrugged. There were a few smaller bruises on his face from the fall, after he had apparently thought it appropriate to kiss every bar on his way down. It was sheer luck that he had not broken his jaw or crushed his teeth in – or broke his neck. For now, it seemed as if it was only his head, his left wrist and … well, his right leg which was in a thick cast, which had once been white surely, but now was riddled with all kinds of colorful artwork as far as Malik could see.

"Well, still. You shouldn’t move it."

"I get morphine. Good stuff." Altaїr shrugged again and Malik found himself sitting down next to him on a visitor chair. There was no indication that someone was with Altaїr and had just left the room for a moment. He half expected his mother to stay with her baby, but surely she was busy. He could not blame her and Altaїr was one who could look after himself – most of the times at least. Not so much doing parkour apparently.

"So I think you are proud of yourself now, right?" Malik sighed. Being with Altaїr always was weird as fuck, for the boy made it almost impossible to argue with him. Again they found themselves in such an awkward position and yet neither of them seemed resentful. Well, clearly Malik had no reason to be resentful, after all, it had been him fucking around with Altaїr and dumping the poor bastard. Maybe that had even lead to his decision of competing with this guy! Maybe it was his fault.

"Well, yeah?" Altaїr grinned. "I won. Abbas had not had the balls to end the race and since I ended up closer to the finishing line, I clearly won the race."

"And broke all of your bones winning."

"Not all of them. I only broke my leg, my pelvis and fractured my wrist, which is a shame since I am left handed. Oh and from now on I will have a hard time getting through security controls. I am now the proud owner of a metal plate in my skull." And proud he seemed as he gently knocked the knuckles of his right index finger to the back of his skull as if that would not hurt him the slightest bit. To Malik it was almost unbearable, that stupid kid, and yet he could not help but laugh at the sheer stupidity and playful way Altaїr displayed his injuries to him, as if they were war wounds he needed to show off, like he was still in kindergarten and being proud of a wound that needed stitching.

"I brought you sweets." He then sighed throwing the plastic back against Altaїr's chest. The boy winced and with a small _"Ouch!"_ rubbed his ribs, but Malik did not believe him. "Oh don’t be such a baby, or shall I call for more morphine?"

They needed to talk in earnest of course. He needed to apologize for his behavior towards that kid, he knew this. And yet … Altaїr seemed to understand already and he had no clue how that was even remotely possible. He seemed to know that Malik felt like the biggest asshole in the entire universe right now and yet the boy only poked one of his knitting needles at his chest to catch him off guard as Malik stared at nothing, letting his thoughts trail off again.

"You hurt me, you know?" Altaїr finally murmured and this time he really caught him off guard. "Treating me like a stupid child and all this. I too have feelings, you know? I just don’t like talking about them as much as you."

"I don’t talk about my feelings."

"Yeah you do, but you don’t even notice." Altaїr grinned. "I meant it when I said we could just try being together until you would have to leave. I may be young and all this crap, but this doesn’t mean I will sleep around immediately after you are gone. If that was the case I would have slept around already with other guys. I do have more than enough admirers, you know? I've got a pretty face and all that."

That he had, Malik could not deny that fact for sure. He was good looking and by the time he would have grown to be a full-fledged adult, he would be handsome as hell, wooing everyone around him with a glance. Maybe that was part of what was so scary to Malik. Could he really claim this kid to be his without other guys trying to get into Altaїr's pants? "So I fucked up, I guess." He concluded. "Listen, I just came here to apologize. The way I was acting was not right and I should not have dumped you like I did or sleep with you again the other day knowing that I and you would not get back together in the first place. I understand if you won't accept my apology of course."

"See? You're doing it again." Altaїr sighed leaning back in his pillow a bit, his eyes shortly darting to the TV and then back to Malik. "What are you going to do now? Are you going to spend the last day's home in misery before heading to Syria again?"

"I think so." Malik murmured brushing a hand through his thick black hair. He needed a haircut before he would go back. "I need to let Rauf finish my new tattoo and I hope it hurts, so I can make up for the hurt I caused you." He then admitted before he made a move to get up again, instead he shifted in his chair a bit. "Listen, I'm really sorry. I can only apologize, but in don’t think you would ever give me a second chance to try and make up to you."

"You could stop talking shit and help me with this wool, it always tangles like shit." Altaїr interrupted him, shortly glaring at him before a small smirk pulled at his lips.

\---------

It was snowing again, as Malik came back from shopping, two bags full of groceries under his arms. Shopping had been hellish of course because of the holidays and to him, it was always the worst needing to go shopping between the years anyway. Christmas had passed quite quickly and with loads of uncalled action and drama, with Altaїr's childhood friend Desmond and his friend Connor dropping by. When Malik had originally heard from Altaїr about the boys dropping by on their flight from home, he had wanted to call their families immediately. He hated when people were running away from their problems, but then he didn’t. Not long ago he had run away from things himself and Altaїr were the best way of reminding him on that simply by being around him. So, he had decided to not get involved and just take care of the kids, for a part of him had hoped that they would get found by their parents soon enough and get home safely after their little adventure in New York City. Gladly that turned out to be true and now they had the flat all to themselves again.

Three years ago he had not dreamed to come home frozen to the bones with bags of groceries in his arms to the tune of Christmas carols from the radio and another person rummaging his flat. _Their_ flat. They had moved in together shortly after Malik had come home safely from his duty in Syria the year they had met, perfectly on time for Christmas that year, to find Altaїr still recovering from his injuries and making stupid jokes about the metal plate in his skull and how he always got funny looks when he would walk through a metal detector. He often got headaches when it was cold outside because the metal in his skull would turn cold and hurt him and the same was true for real hot days too. He got dizzy a lot during summer because of that and Malik always needed to keep a close eye on him then. But Altaїr never whined about it and why should he? It would not help him anyway, how Altaїr often so cleverly remarked.

"I brought cookies." Malik announced his presence before he went into the kitchen to set down the bags. Pepper was sitting on the sink, staring at him accusatorily. Probably because he was hungry. Altaїr introduced strict rules to the fat tomcat when he moved in and sometimes Malik was sure the Sergeant would kill his evil stepmother for that one day.

"Take off your socks!" It sounded suddenly from the bathroom and though Malik only cocked an eyebrow at this command, he went on to unpack the groceries before questioning his boyfriend about this demand. It was not the weirdest thing he had ever demanded from Malik certainly. "Have you taken off your socks yet?"

"What do you want with my socks?" He shouted back over his shoulder, stacking away the cookies into the cupboard before Altaїr would snatch them from him.

"They are wet and they need to be washed. Hand them over!"

Well, they _were_ wet. His boots, though waterproofed, sadly were no match for the weather outside with the snow piling up on the sidewalks. "It's alright, it's not that bad!" He called out again, still placing groceries on the table, before he flinched violently, feeling something pointy poking in the small of his back.

"Hand them over, now." Altaїr was close now, his voice deep and with a dangerous hum to them. "Don’t make me count to ten."

Malik slowly raised his hands in submission over his head before he slowly, slowly turned around, being held at knitting-needle-point. "I think we can talk about this like civilized people, Sir." He claimed, but Altaїr waved the needle at him again like a dangerous weapon, a laundry basket under his right arm, already filled with their clothes and Malik's dirty, stinking socks.

"Your socks. I want them. Give me."

"You know that you don’t have to wash my stinking socks, right?" Malik inquired and tried to bite back the smirk of amusement. Well, Altaїr sure was one to keep things tidy, that he had learned. Apparently, Altaїr got that from his mother and from the years he had spent living with a working mom alone before Robert had come along. (Funny, how things sometimes turned out, because three years later Malik was a very welcomed guest in Altaїr's mother's house.)

"I want your stinking socks."

"Why are you so weird? Has your mom let you fall from your changing table when you were little or is this some kind of weird fetish you have? And if that is the truth then I would really like to know how many pairs of dirty, stinking socks from different men you have already collected." Malik replied and when Altaїr was not paying attention to the needle so much anymore, Malik snatched if from Altaїr's fingers and was now pointing the dangerous weapon at his boyfriend himself. Carefully Altaїr stepped back, holding his free hand up in surrender.

"I promise you it's not a fetish and I promise you I do not have a vast collection of dirty socks from a battalion of men." He then answered him, his face all serious and seemingly frightened of the weapon Malik was wielding. "I am only interested in _your_ dirty socks, Mal. Pinky swear."

Malik couldn’t resist the face he was making. He could never resist this, so he slowly laid down the knitting needle on the table. "You pinky swore that you had not eaten the last double chocolate cookie too the other day."

"Well, that was a lie." Altaїr then grinned, before he grabbed Malik with his free hand by the collar of his damp down jacket and pulled him closer. Altaїr had grown quite a lot during the last three years and though not much, he was a little bit taller than Malik now. It was only one inch, not much more, but still, it bothered Malik sometimes a bit, being the older and wiser of them, of course, he did not let this show. He refused to give Altaїr the kiss he so clearly longed for with this laundry basket under his arm still, instead, Malik used his disadvantage in grabbing his face with both his (very cold) hands and enjoyed seeing him flinch before he jerked Altaїr's face closer to his and planted a kiss on his nose.

"Over my dead body, you will get my dirty, stinking socks." He then added with a grin.


End file.
